Perhaps without even looking for it, Cora Kavanagh would leave one of the most emblematic buildings of rationalist architecture in Argentina. Inaugurated in January 1936, with its almost 120 meters of height, the Kavanagh Building stands in front of the ravine of Plaza San Martín, located in the central neighborhood of Retiro in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
"Cora Kavanagh and her Building" is the title of Marcelo Nougués' new book that gathers the entire story, revealing everything from her building and her travels to her art collection and the different houses she lived in during a period of almost 50 years. In collaboration with Díaz Ortiz Ediciones, this 572-page printed volume compiles texts, photographs, and documents from the author's collection and also showcases selected images and illustrations from extensive research. Discover a part of this story below.
After more than two decades living in Europe, Cora Kavanagh decided to sell the fields she had inherited from her husband to commission this real estate venture to the studio of Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos, and Luis María de la Torre. Although there is a famous urban legend that claims Cora carried out the building as a symbol of revenge against her mother-in-law for preventing her from marrying her son, Marcelo Nougués' investigation not only addresses this story but goes beyond to highlight the life and work of a woman whose building would become one of the urban icons of the city.
Audacious client of the skyscraper that raised the modernity of Buenos Aires, nostalgic collector of the douceur de vivre of the French eighteenth century, occasional protagonist of the worldly chronicle, frequent passenger of floating palaces born and of great hotels, Corina Kavanagh deployed, over nine decades, an atypical life. However, she does not seem to have left, in the memory of those who knew her, a complete, clear, and indelible image, a portrait that preserved for posterity the singularity of her person. Nor has any of the words she said or wrote, any letter or interview, any direct testimony of her existence come down to us, of which only the adulterated version of her truncated romance with Aarón Anchorena, foundational myth of the architectural wonder inaugurated in 1936, has persisted in the oral folklore of Buenos Aires... - Excerpt from the prologue by Ernesto Montequin.
Being a collector of antiques and a prominent figure in the worldly chronicles of the time, this biography seeks to highlight the audacity, independence, and entrepreneurship of a woman in times when ladies of her social position probably would not have dared to propose it.
Becoming a symbol of Buenos Aires modernity, this monumental skyscraper would, at that time, be the tallest reinforced concrete building in South America. Since 1999 and to this day, it is part of the World Heritage of Modern Architecture set by UNESCO, and is also declared a National Historic Monument.
Original Idea: Marcelo Nougués
Editorial Direction: Ezequiel Díaz Ortiz (CMYK Buenos Aires), Marcelo Nougués
Editorial Design: Ezequiel Díaz Ortiz (CMYK Buenos Aires), Sol Severi
Prologue: Ernesto Montequin
Collaborations: Domingo Cullen, Santiago Lynch, Ernesto Montequin
Text Editing: Marina Gambier
Text Correction: Magdalena Beccar Varela
English Translation of Texts: Marta Merajver
English Translation of Epigraphs: Connie Fantin-Bellocq, Gustavo Sosa Pinilla
Photocromy: Ricardo Farías
Printing: Akian Gráfica Editora
