NEIGHBORHOODS > PUERTO MADERO

Puerto Madero

The neighborhood owes its name to Eduardo Madero, a merchant from Buenos Aires who presented three projects for the construction of the city’s port, the last of which was approved in 1882 by then President Julio Argentino Roca. Construction began on April 1, 1887 and the south dock was inaugurated on January 28, 1889. Merely ten years after completion, due to the increasing size of incoming ships, the port had become obsolete. The government had to face the construction of a new port, and opted to follow Luis Huergo’s concept of a series of open docks in the shape of a comb, which resulted in the New Port, inaugurated in 1919, and still active today. The following decades saw Puerto Madero’s decline; it ceased being an international trade port, and became a river port. The warehouses and loading cranes were left in a state of abandonment, along with large vacant lots. There were many proposals to reactivate it or repurpose it (notably the one by French architect Le Corbusier in 1929, who imagined a large platform on piles on which to build office skyscrapers), but none came to fruition.

Finally on November 15, 1989, the “Corporación Antiguo Puerto Madero” was formed, with the purpose of disaffecting the port area and its urbanization as a new neighborhood. The first stage of revitalization began in 1994, with the recycling of the warehouses with brick facades on the east side of the docks, in which a gastronomic enclave sprang, that quickly became fashionable. On the upper floors of the docks, offices and loft-type apartments were built. Beginning in 1997, the reconstruction began on the other side of the dikes: numerous streets, boulevards and avenues were opened, later named after Latin American women of prominence. In October of 1999, the Puerto Madero Casino was inaugurated.

Since early 21^st century, the district has held the title of being the “Most Expensive Neighborhood in Latin America”, having the highest priced homes per square meter in the region. Additionally, it is home to the headquarters and offices of large multinational companies, luxury hotels and residences, and prominent businessmen and politicians of Argentina.

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