THE OTTO WULF BUILDING

Buenos Aires is full of architectural jewels you can discover by just looking up. The Otto Wulf building (OWB) is one of those amazing and strange constructions you can find in our city. It is part of a large number of buildings due to Art Nouveau architects which built in Buenos Aires during the beginning of the XX Century. Locates in the corner of Belgrano Avenue and Peru Street, in Montserrat neighborhood, it’s only 10 blocks away from our Hostel Colonial.

The Art Nouveau movement has many exponents in Buenos Aires, but none of them is as curious as the OWB. The architect, Danish Morten F. Rönnow, enrolled it in the sub-style known as Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau style). It was built among 1912 and 1914 by order of Austro-Hungarian ambassador Nicolas Mihanovich in the spot where Spanish Viceroy Del Pino had its house.

The OWB is considered among the most valuable in Buenos Aires. It is 60 meters tall and its crowned by twin bronze tops and a wide palette of ornaments. You can see 8 human figures (Atlantes) replacing the columns and representing the different trades involved in the construction. Among the sculptures of OWB you can see local fauna as bears, parrots, penguins and owls. All of these ornaments are made in reinforced concrete, a bet on modern materials.