Current Watch Site
Founded in 1882, incorporating a pre-existing urban layout, La Plata is the administrative, political, and judiciary center of the province of Buenos Aires. It is the seat of the Supreme Court and the provincial legislature, as well as home to the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, two leading education and research centers in the Americas. Designed according to City Beautiful and rationalist precepts, the urban grid is intersected by two main diagonal avenues that merge at the town square where the Municipal Building and Cathedral are located. The abundance of open space is evident on the wide tree-lined sidewalks, compact blocks with green cores, and the smaller plazas located every six blocks. La Plata’s architecture is representative of the city’s immigrant history and diversity, with styles mingling German baroque, French Art Nouveau, Italian Renaissance, and Spanish colonial.
Changes to local urban policy, insufficient preservation ordinances, and development pressures endanger not only important buildings, but also the historic scale and layout of the urban landscape. Inclusion on the 2012 Watch will help raise awareness of the threat to La Plata’s built heritage and city plan, and give voice to community concerns.
Download a 2012 Watch poster of this site (see download instructions).
IN THE MEDIA
- Compromiso patrimonial
Página/12, October 15, 2011
- Pancartas y proyecciones por el patrimonio histórico
El Argentino, October 21, 2011
- Advierten que La Plata pierde su esencia
La Nación, November 21, 2011
