Mario Palanti

Mario Palanti (1885-1979) was an architect who designed important buildings in the capital cities of both Argentina and Uruguay. Born in 1885 in Milan, Italy, he studied architecture in the Brera Academy and in the Milan Polytechnic. Soon after graduation he received a Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Brussels and arrived in Buenos Aires in 1909 with a commission to manage, with the help of his compatriot, Francisco Gianotti, the construction of the Italian Pavilion for the Exposición Internacional del Centenario (1910).

For nearly 20 years he worked on both sides of the River Plate for wealthy compatriot clients. During the period 1909-1919 his designs employed variations of Renaissance Revival and Art Nouveau styles and there then followed a period during which he carried out his most impressive work in Buenos Aires including Pasaje Barolo and Hotel Castelar, both in Avenida de Mayo, an apartment building on the corner of Sante Fe and Callao, and Palacio Chrysler (today known as Palacio Alcorta) which had an automobile test track on its roof, similar to the first Fiat factory in Turin. During this period he also designed the Palacio Salvo in Montevideo, and produced a large number of drawings for monumental buildings that were never built. In the final period of his work, after he returned to live in Italy in 1930, he undertook a series of projects that never materialised.

References

Mimi Böhm, Buenos Aires, Art Nouveau, Ediciones Xavier Verstraeten, Buenos Aires, 2005.
El Portal de arte y arquitectura en Internet(in Spanish) http://www.arquitectura.com/historia/protag/palanti/palanti.asp