A new controversy rests on the CCK. The national government announced that "it will give way to a new name." But for this giant from Bajo Buenos Aires, the discussion around his name is a minor detail. Survivor of other battles, it stands as an example of the representative architecture of
French academicism
; National Historical Monument and Buenos Aires postcard, the Palacio de Correos y Telégrafos returns to the center of the scene.
First step, wrong. The time in which it was conceived could not have been more inopportune: 1888. In those years, President Miguel Juárez Celman approved the project for its construction, but there was little time left for what is considered "the first Argentine default." In 1890, a financing and debt crisis broke out, causing the bankruptcy of part of the banking system; Even the National Bank and that of the Province of Buenos Aires were liquidated.
The project had already been commissioned and was necessary in a city with unusual growth, which received the massive arrival of immigrants and witnessed the expansion of the population towards the provinces. Ramón Carcano, the Postmaster of Argentina, wanted to hire Francesco Tamburini, but received a no answer.
The thing is that the Italian was somewhat busy with other projects, more or less important: he was the General Director of Architecture of the Nation and was working on the designs of the Teatro Colón and the Casa Rosada.
So he reached the Frenchman Norbert Maillart. The architect
was inspired by the New York Central Post Office
; But, as said, the crisis occurred and more than a decade later he modified his project.
Model of the mail project, with bridges and platforms. Photo: CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture)
The work, almost completed, in 1928. Photo: CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture)
A current view of the Post Office Palace. Photo: Maxi Failla
In a "true urban operation of downtown Buenos Aires" - as described by the architect and architectural researcher Fabio Grementieri - Maillart added
platforms, bridges and ramps
.
To overcome the unevenness of the ravine, Maillart designed pedestrian bridges that would be linked to other buildings, such as the Stock Exchange, located on the other side of Avenida Alem. And platforms that will reach from the neighboring streets to the entrance to the building.
The lands reclaimed from the river, where the Palace was located. In the background the lighthouse building of Nicolás Mihanovich. Photo: CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture)
The Post Office had not yet begun to be built and had already weathered an economic crisis, the sit-in by the Italian architect and the reformulation of the original design. An even greater challenge lacked:
resolving the difficulties of the terrain.
The architect and urban archaeologist Daniel Schávelzon - who has excavated multiple sites in the City, one of them very close, the Taylor Customs - says that the "edge of Buenos Aires as we know it has nothing to do with the original limits. Virtually
our entire coastline is fill."
The metal structure that allowed the building to be "relieved" because it was sinking. Photo: CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture)
To have an idea, there was a promenade type promenade - similar to the current Costanera Sur - in that area of Alem Avenue.
Indeed, the palace was located on these
lands reclaimed from the river
and things became complicated: due to the instability of the terrain,
the bases sank
. This setback forced the cement structure to be replaced with a metal skeleton, to lighten it. And more than 2,800 reinforced concrete piles were placed to compensate for the instability. At this point, Maillart left the work in the hands of his main collaborator,
the Russian Jacques Spolsky.
The ornamentation, carried out on site, in the own workshops. Photo CeDIAP Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture
By 1923, he again ran out of money; Therefore, a new allocation of funds was necessary to allow the work to continue.
In September 1928, President Marcelo T. de Alvear inaugurated the Palace.
Documentation for restoration
In 1997, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark; In 2002 the Correo Argentino stopped operating there and in 2006 an international call was made for the restoration and refunctionalization project of the Palace. The reason? The celebrations for the 200 years of the Homeland. For this reason,
its first name was the Bicentennial Cultural Center.
Beyond the political and ideological discussion, it could be called again as it was originally. Anyway, for many people, it will forever be CCK.
Plans with details of the main front of the Palace, on Sarmiento Street. Photo CeDIAP Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture
When the restoration work began, a key player appeared, the CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture). This organization - dependent on the State Property Administration Agency and the Chief of Staff - has 2,500 plans and 600 photographs of the Palace alone.
But in total it has 350,000 plans and 300,000 photographs of 9,000 works carried out by the State between 1872 and 1989. The CeDIAP works like this: it preserves the original documentation - and that kept in a specially conditioned warehouse -, it archives it in a database that is It is open to public consultation, and shares digital reproductions free of charge with all those people or institutions that require them.
"The documentation we had about the Palace was
fundamental for the intervention
; for the architecture studios and professionals that participated in the international competition it was a great saving of time and money. But also a tool that allowed us to know the compositional and material characteristics of the building"
Sebastián De Zan, architect, specialist in historical heritage management, in charge of CeDIAP,
explained to
Clarín .
The metal structure, in the middle of the construction of the Palace. Photo: CeDIAP (Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture)
The plans and photos reveal the organization of the building: "Two large patios that organized, on the one hand, the administrative functions with an academic language, and on the other, the mechanical and operational functions," says De Zan.
The administrative function -and customer service- towards Sarmiento Street; which is the restored area and main entrance to the CCK. And the operational function of the building, which was resolved towards the enormous gates that can be seen on Corrientes Avenue, which was emptied from the inside and became the famous
"Blue Whale" room.
The ceilings, a separate story
With more than a hundred years of distance, fate wanted the same family that built the roofs of this monumental building to be in charge of the restoration. It's about the Dörflers. The story reflects one of the many carried out by the immigrants who built the vast majority of the institutional buildings of those times.
The domes, still under construction. Photo CeDIAP Center for Documentation and Research of Public Architecture
Rudolf Dörfler arrived in Buenos Aires in September 1921 with one job as his only letter of introduction: master slate maker. He was staying at the Hotel de los Inmigrantes when a roofing company - Ecke & Co., which was a subcontractor of the construction company Geopé - requested a worker to carry out tasks in a neighboring building: the Palacio de Correos.
"It took a year, with only one assistant
. It took us two years to restore it with ten people," recalled Christian, Rudolf's grandson, in a note with
Clarín
.
While carrying out the restoration work, Christian found numerous slates with a handwritten legend, in German: "slate cover made from January to December 1922. Rudolf Dörfler. Neudorf, Baden", for the family town of origin.
The following year, in 1923, the work would stop again due to lack of money and a law had to be resorted to again to request the funds which, fortunately, were granted.
S.C.