Modern architecture in Latin America : art, technology, and utopia

Foreword by Jorge Francisco Liernur     Acknowledgments     (Notes toward an) Introduction     1903. Francisco Pereira Passos begins a project to "civilize" Rio de Janeiro by applying Baron Haussmann's ideas as an answer to the tropical (lack of) urbanism.     1904. Victor Meano, Francisco de Oliveira Passos, and Emile Jequier build a Latin American character with a classical vocabulary.     1906. Julian Garcia Nunez's Hospital Espanol defines a characteristic search for a new language: Secession/Art Nouveau.     1914. Jesus T. Acevedo and Federico Mariscal lecture in Mexico on the character, importance, and role of the Spanish colonial legacy.     1915. Antonin Nechodoma introduces the Prairie style to Puerto Rico.     1922. In an attempt to create a building expressive of the "cosmic race," Jose Vasconcelos inaugurates in Mexico City the headquarters of the Secretaria de Educacion Publica and formalizes the muralist project.     1923. Mario Palanti: Palacio Barolo and Palacio Salvo     1924. Martin Fierro presents Alberto Prebisch and Ernesto Vautier's Ciudad Azucarera en Tucuman and formalizes the connections and interests in architecture among the literary and artistic avant-gardes.     1925. Modern architecture begins with Gregori Warchavchik and Rino Levi publishing manifestos on the new architecture
 catching up to the 1922 Semana de Arte Moderna.     1925-A. Estridentopolis en 1975: Literary Architecture and the Avant-Garde     1925-B. Jose Villagran Garcia, Instituto de Higiene y Granja Sanitaria     1928. The Columbus Memorial Lighthouse Competition sparks an investigation into what architecture for Latin America should be like.     1929-A. The Ibero-American Exhibition opens in Seville, revealing the complex and contradictory relations between Spain and its former American colonies.     1929-B. Le Corbusier's first encounters with South America: lectures and early projects for Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay     1929-C. With the History of the Skyscraper, Francisco Mujica articulates the skyscraper's Latin American dimension.     1929. Sergio Larrain and Jorge Arteaga's Oberpauer Building initiates a new direction in Chilean architecture.     1930-A. Getulio Vargas takes power in Brazil and appoints twenty-eight-year-old Lucio Costa as director of the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA).     1930-B. Commemorating the centenary of its independence, Uruguay takes the first Soccer World Cup at home, and Montevideo is at the center of its modern ambitions.     1930. Flavio de Carvalho, "City of the Naked Man"     1931. Juan O'Gorman, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Houses and Studios     1933. In his Platicas sobre arquitectura lecture, Juan O'Gorman highlights the existing polemics between functionalism and academic architecture.     1936. Le Corbusier is back in Rio de Janeiro.     1936-A. The Kavanagh Building is finished, becoming the tallest skyscraper in Latin America.     1936-B. Francisco Salamone: Fascism and Monumental Architecture in the Pampa     1936-C. Julio Vilamajo, School of Engineering     1937. Wladimiro Acosta's Vivienda y ciudad highlights the relationship between ecology, new forms of leisure, the house, and the city.     1937. Cine Gran Rex and Argentine Classicist Modernism     1938. Characteristic of the growing reach of surrealism into architecture and Latin America, the Chilean architect-trained artist Matta publishes "Sensitive Mathematics-Architecture of Time" in Minotaure.     1938. Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Monumento cosmico, Montevideo, Uruguay     1939. The European diaspora brings architectural talents to Latin America on an unprecedented scale.     1939. The Brazilian pavilion at New York World's Fair     1941. Pampulha represents an encounter that would change the future of Brazil.     1942. Amancio Williams, Casa sobre el Arroyo     1943-A. The Brazil Builds exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York highlights the architectural and political interests of U.S. relations with Brazil.     1943-B. Town Planning Associates (TPA) is commissioned to design a new Brazilian town around an airplane factory, Cidade dos Motores. This will be the beginning of TPA's involvement with Latin America that will include not only plans for Chimbote, Peru, but also master plans for Medellin and Bogota, Colombia, and Havana, Cuba.     1944. Henry Klumb moves to Puerto Rico and formalizes investigations of modern architecture in the tropics.     1945. Antoni Bonet, Punta Ballena, Uruguay     1946. Affonso Reidy's Popular Housing Blocks     1947-A. Luis Barragan and Max Cetto, the emigre German architect, begin working on the design of the first houses in Mexico City's Jardines del Pedregal subdivision.     1947-B. Seeking to symbolize postwar efficiency and organization, Latin American cities embrace the North American "architecture of bureaucracy."     1947-A. Oscar Niemeyer sketches the UN building in New York but takes no credit.     1947-B. Mario Pani-Multifamiliares     1947-C. Agrupacion Espacio     1949. La ciudad frente al rio is released, showing the transformations of Le Corbusier's plan for Buenos Aires.     1950. Public housing reaches a monumental scale: Mario Pani, Carlos Raul Villanueva, Affonso Reidy, Oscar Niemeyer.     1951-A. Carlos Raul Villanueva, Villanueva Residence     1951-B. PROA magazine publishes Arquitectura en Colombia, articulating an identity that survived the second half of the century.     1951-C. Lina Bo Bardi inaugurates her Casa de Vidro.     1952. The debates of plastic integration, modern architecture, and the development of new city forms come to the forefront in two major universities: the UNAM in Mexico City and the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela. The first exemplifies figurative, legible, and socially conscious art
 the second, abstraction.     1952. Eladio Dieste, Iglesia de Cristo Obrero, Atlantida, Uruguay     1953-A. Affonso Reidy: halfway between the Carioca school and the Paulista school     1953-B. El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City opens its doors, advocating for an "emotional architecture."     1953-C. Max Bill's critique of the Sao Paulo Biennial has a significant impact in Brazil: Oscar Niemeyer writes a "mea culpa," Sergio Bernardes invests in designing a technological utopia, and Joao Filgueiras Lima devotes his life to prefabrication.     1953-A. Felix Candela, Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Mexico City     1953-B. Mario Roberto Alvarez, Teatro General San Martin, Buenos Aires     1954. Le Corbusier, Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina     1955. Eladio Dieste-Tectonics driving the accidental architect     1955-A. Fruto Vivas, Club Tachira     1955-B. The Helicoide in Caracas: The Ultimate Parking and Shopping Center     1955-C. Gio Ponti, Villa Planchart     1956. Brasilia: A modernist utopia?     1957-A. Mies van der Rohe, Bacardi Buildings for Havana, Cuba, and Mexico City     1957-B. Lina Bo Bardi, Sao Paulo Museum of Art     1959. The appeal of Corbusian monumentality and beton brut: Clorindo Testa's Government Building in La Pampa and, with SEPRA, the Bank of London and South America in Buenos Aires     1961-A. Fidel Castro, in conversation with Ernesto "Che" Guevara, decides to convert a golf course into art schools in Cuba.     1961-B. Joao Batista Vilanova Artigas and Paulo Mendes da Rocha articulate the Paulista school: free ground plan, generous social spaces, and opaque envelopes.     1961. Joao Batista Vilanova Artigas, School of Architecture and Planning, University of Sao Paulo     1962. Nelson Bayardo, Columbarium, Montevideo     1963. In Bogota, Rogelio Salmona takes old bricks to a new dimension in Torres del Parque.     1964-A. The military dictatorship ends Delfim Amorim and Acacio Gil Borsoi's investigations into an architecture for the Brazilian northeast.     1964-B. Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City     1964-C. Martin Correa and Gabriel Guarda, Las Condes Benedictine Monastery Chapel     1965-A. Parque do Flamengo: Roberto Burle Marx redefines the Brazilian landscape by rediscovering the country's own local species.     1965-B. The (re)invention of Curitiba: from the plan of Jorge Wilheim to the implementation by Jaime Lerner     1965. Juan Borchers, Cooperativa Electrica de Chillan, Chile     1966. United Nations as client and advocate: Emilio Duhart's CEPAL Building in Santiago     1967. Helio Oiticica builds Tropicalia, challenging the traditional boundaries between art, popular culture, construction, and architecture.     1967. Jesus Tenreiro-Degwitz-Venezuelan Postmodernism     1968. The Olympic Games provide Mexico City with opportunities for new forms of national representation through architecture
 deadly student protests highlight the contested use of public space.     1969-A. Inventing new educational paradigms, Alberto Cruz Covarrubias and Godofredo Iommi (poetically) found the Ciudad Abierta in Chile.     1969-B. PREVI: Two opposing governments in Peru bring in the best architects in the world to address squatter settlements.     1969. Francisco Bullrich publishes on Latin American architecture.     1971. Formalizing the legacy of the Madi (Movimiento de Arte de Invencion) and utopian urban projects, Gyula Kosice proposes a hydrospatial city.     1971. National Theater, Guatemala     1974. Teaching under duress: La Escuelita, dictatorship, and postmodernism in Argentina     1975. Filgueiras Lima, Capela do Centro Administrativo da Bahia     1976. Mexican postmodernism: Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon's Colegio de Mexico expresses modern architecture's new historicizing sensibilities.     1977-A. Eolo Maia, Capela de Santana ao Pe do Morro     1977-B. Bruno Stagno House, Costa Rica     1979. Pampulha magazine is launched in Minas Gerais, marking the beginning of Brazilian postmodernism.     1980. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded to Luis Barragan, and photography is at the center of the myth.     1983. Niemeyer returns to Rio de Janeiro to design the Sambodromo and the CIEPs: architecture gets closer to popular needs.     1983-A. Ramon Gutierrez publishes Arquitectura y urbanismo en Iberoamerica.     1983-B. Severiano Porto, Balbina Environmental Protection Center, Brazil     1985-A. In the midst of a "not-so-lost" decade ...     1985-B. Lina Bo Bardi and the SESC Pompeia inaugurate an interest in adapting existing structures.     1988. Brazilian Museum of Sculpture     1990. Chilean postmodernism is challenged by Jose Cruz and German del Sol.     1991. Angelo Bucci and Alvaro Puntoni win the competition for the Brazilian pavilion at Seville Expo 1992, marking the end of the postmodern reign and the beginning of neomodernism.     1993. Pablo Beitia, Xul Solar Museum (Pan Klub Foundation)     1994-A. Quae sera tamen: Architecture for the Favelas     1994-B. As a model for internationalization, NAFTA becomes emblematic of the new character of late-twentieth-century Mexican architecture.     1997. Smiljan Radic, Charcoal Burner's Hut     2000. Colombian Renaissance: In Bogota and Medellin, mayors and architects work together to create better cities.     2000. Alberto Kalach, GGG House, Mexico City     2001. Solano Benitez's Tomb for His Father, Paraguay     2002. Rafael Iglesia, Pavilions at Parque Independencia     Provocations for a Conclusion: Islands No More     Notes     Bibliography     Illustration Credits     Index