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buenos aires: ciae architecture 3

CIAE architecture, Chiogna, Buenos Aires, Recoleta, Subusina Montevideo

In 1915, the largest generator complex —Pedro de Mendoza— opened in the barrio of La Boca. But the CIAE began offering service the previous year from a facility in Recoleta. That building belongs to the next set of structures in terms of size:  6 subusinas which housed secondary generators named for the streets on which they are/were located. Besides generating electricity, customer service centers were located in three of the five buildings, marked below with an asterisk.

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buenos aires: ciae architecture 2

CIAE architecture, Buenos Aires, La Boca, Chiogna, Usina Pedro de Mendoza

The CIAE ensured that Juan Chiogna’s Romanesque Revival spread throughout Buenos Aires plus its southern suburbs & remains a distinct feature of the entire urban area. Buildings appeared on three scales & larger structures had more decorative elements. The largest of Chiogna’s works was the first generator complex in La Boca, the Usina Pedro de Mendoza. Initially a 3-story rectangular structure in 1915, it occupied approximately one-quarter of the city block with the street façade decorated by a tower on one end & an ochava office entrance on the other:

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buenos aires: ciae architecture 1

Buenos Aires, CIAE subestación, vector render

With financial needs met, a concession from Buenos Aires granted & service scheduled to begin in 1914, Carosio hired Juan Chiogna to build fantastic covers for CIAE generators & substations. Reminding passersby of Medieval Italy, these eye-catching structures only served as decorative shells to house large machinery, spare equipment & cables. Local architects term the style “Lombardy Romanesque” likely due to an early reference found in La Nacion newspaper in 1916:

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buenos aires: ciae & swiss holding companies

Paris, Éclairage par l'électricité, Compagnie Continentale Edison

The 1881 Exposition Universelle in Paris wowed crowds with telephone-transmitted concerts from the Opéra & a demonstration of Edison’s recent improvement of an old idea: the incandescent light bulb. Edison carefully guarded the 1879 patent of the light bulb & only allowed the Compagnie Continentale Edison to diffuse his device in France… some of the original access panels in Paris can occasionally be found [photo above]. Licensing agreements were also given to two German entrepreneurs: Werner von Siemens & Emil Rathenau. Rathenau established the Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft, later reorganized in 1887 as the Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft (AEG). As mentioned in the previous post, the AEG would play an important role in bringing electricity to Buenos Aires.

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buenos aires: ciae, precedent & foundation

[Some material for the following series of posts originally published as “unexpected eagles” on 14 Jul 2007, “more ciae goodness” on 30 Oct 2007, “superpower” on 29 Dec 2007, “inside the kavanagh 2” on 15 Mar 2008, “usina de la música” on 17 Jun 2008… the CIAE was obviously a recurring blog topic. This series is an amalgam & significant expansion of original content.]

electric lighting, Buenos Aires
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