Mario Roberto Ãlvarez
Mario Roberto Álvarez (born 14 November 1913 in Buenos Aires, † November 5, 2011 ) was an Argentine architect. He was considered an influential representative of modern architecture in Argentina.
Life
Álvarez studied at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires and from 1932 at the Universidad de Buenos Aires; In 1936 he graduated with honors. His first design in 1937 was a hospital for the private Grupo Medical San Martín in the suburb of San Martín. In 1938 he received a scholarship from his former university, which allowed him to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and work in the UK and to study; He visited 115 cities. During this time he gained experience in the construction of public buildings and hospitals.
In 1939 he returned to Argentina and was appointed in 1942 as Director of Architecture in the Avellaneda Partido. Along with Leonardo Kopiloff and Eduardo T. Santoro 1947 he founded the office MRA. The first major project of the architect office was General San Martín for the Teatro. Completed in 1960, the draft secured an additional order for the adjacent Centro Cultural General San Martín, which was inaugurated in 1970.
Other famous buildings by Álvarez et al are the Tunel subfluvial Raúl Uranga - Carlos Sylvestre Begnis, a tunnel under the Paraná River in the province of Entre Ríos, the workshops for the Teatro Colón, the Headquarters for Somisa, a state-owned steel group, the Salto Grande hydroelectric plant, and numerous office buildings, including the cultivation for the Stock Exchange of Buenos Aires and the offices for the Latin America Division of IBM. In Punta del Este, a seaside resort in Uruguay, he built several homes and hotels. 1976 Alvarez was admitted as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.
During the economic crisis in the 1980s, the demand subsided, and Álvarez designed, as a donation, the new building for the Leloir Institute. Further he designed buildings from that decade are the American Express building on Plaza San Martin and the " Costa Galana Hotel " ( Mar del Plata). In the 1990s, the Stock Exchange of Rosario were added, the Torre Le Parc in Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Hilton and the headquarters of Microsoft Latin America, including numerous high-rise buildings in the neighborhoods of Recoleta and Palermo.
2003, almost to his 90th birthday, he received a prize for the transformation of the North District in Osaka, Japan. The construction of the new headquarters for the Galicia Financial Group in San Nicolás neighborhood caused controversy when it was demolished a historic building. In Córdoba Álvarez built the new airport terminal, in Rosario the " Torre Aqua Lina ", in Buenos Aires - La Boca a building for the Fundacíon Proa and in Bariloche, Hilton Hotel, which was built into a mountain.
Honors and Awards
- Medal of Honor at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
- Honorary Medal of the Universidad de Buenos Aires