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"We feel a thriving development.And that feeling overwhelms us, makes us fear an anarchic future, we fear that the threads that guide their balance are lost.We fear that the atmosphere that today has such a suggestive harmony becomes a set without interest and that this corner that falls in love today loses its charm ”.Words belong to the architect Julio Vilamajó. Y fueron escritas en su Estudio regional para Punta del Este, de 1943, alertando por el desarrollo urbanístico de la zona.They are almost 80 years old.And they were almost prophetic: the main Uruguayan spa was transformed into a city.
Se talaron bosques y los chalets dieron paso a torres de concreto.The family rest site lost its bonhomy and mutated in an international tourist center, with all the uproar that means.
Y aunque los optimistas aclaren que todavía existen rincones prístinos del viejo Punta del Este (exclusivos para unos pocos afortunados), es un hecho que muchas construcciones emblemáticas cedieron a las presiones del mercado inmobiliario.And that ended up reduced to dust and debris.
Según el historiador y subdirector de Cultura de la Intendencia de Maldonado Fernando Cairo, antes de la década de 1930 la “vida edilicia” de Punta del Este se limitaba a la península.And his center was the current street 10. Pero hacia 1938, se cambió el eje del balneario hacia la calle Gorlero. Se construyó el Hotel Casino Punta del Este (luego rebautizado Nogaró), surgieron los hoteles Miguez y Playa, la confitería La Fragata y se comenzó a utilizar la Playa Brava. Poco antes habían surgido las dos primeras urbanizaciones que respetaban el paisaje: Pine Beach (1936) y San Rafael (1937)."Punta del Este expands to the forest.The Barrios-Jardín arise that, for decades, characterized the spa.Pascual Gattás undertook his first urbanization work in 40 hectares.THE ARCHITECT JUAN C.Paseyro was the one who, with prolixity artistic, drew its streets, configured its apples and determined the place of tree plantations.And in 1937 the accountant José Pizzorno Scarone acquired ten lots of 15 hectares each (that is 150 hectares) on the San Rafael beach, and began to plant Pinos.He associated with the Spanish Laureano Alonsoperez and Manuel Lussich and formed the firm Development of San Rafael (Fosara).Thus it was urbanized and formed the place, ”Cairo explained to Domingo Magazine.Será en este barrio “alejado” del centro (que toma su nombre del naufragio de la fragata San Rafael ocurrido en 1763) y en su vecino Parque del Golf, donde se construirán posteriormente algunas de las majestuosas casas que hoy, desafortunadamente, son parte de la historia.“We should never lose the urbanized forest, although it is a balance that is sometimes difficult to maintain, because tourism spills wealth.And there is also the owner's right to sell, ”says Cairo.El boom inmobiliario de la plata dulce argentina, durante la dictadura militar que gobernó el vecino país entre 1976 y 1983, demolió la casi totalidad de grandes propiedades de la rambla Claudio Williman sobre la Mansa.Instead, four -story and rectangular base apartments buildings accommodated a large number of families of the marked middle class in Argentina.Some of the mansions that fell in those years were those of the Mailhos families (located near the dock of the same name) and Anchorena. También corrieron la misma suerte, en distintas épocas, edificios privados icónicos como el Hotel La Cigale (a cuyo frente estuvo Madame Pitot, una francesa que supo ser cocinera del ex presidente argentino Carlos Pellegrini), el Centro del Espectáculo de la Parada 4 de la Mansa (derrumbado en el año 2001) y la taberna y vivero Mariskonea, que desde mediados de la década de 1940 se encontraba en la rambla José Artigas y la calle 26.Through this select gastronomic local on La Brava, characters of all kinds passed, from politicians such as the then president Alberto Fujimori, the general director of the IMF Michel Camdessus, and artists such as Omar Sharif, including the flower and cream of the Argentine entertainment.
After Mariskonea closed in 2003, the premises was bought by a Uruguay.The order was denied. Y la misma respuesta fue reiterada después por el intendente Óscar de los Santos, aunque este último aprobó, en 2013, la demolición del inmueble que se encontraba a merced de los “okupas”. Otro fue el destino de las grandes mansiones ubicadas sobre la rambla Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco, que subsistieron las distintas explosiones inmobiliarias.And to other work booms that occurred in the early nineties, with the convertibility of Menem and the greatest expansion of construction from 2005 and until 2011.
Parte de la vida puntaesteña en chalets de lujo rodeados de naturaleza se vive, desde hace 70 años, en el exclusivo barrio Parque del Golf, donde el Hotel L’Auberge y su icónica torre de agua de estilo medieval son referencias.Its properties have been chosen by leaders, politicians and figures of the Jet-Set and culture such as George Bush, Eric and Ivanka Trump, Melanie Melanie Griffith-Antonio Banderas, Mario Vargas Llosa and Pelé.The tower has nothing to do with the traditional OSE height tanks that are part of the landscape in many villages of Uruguay: it was built in 1948 by the renowned Argentine architect Arturo Dubourg and at its time supplied water to the entire neighborhood.The Dubourg factory brand (responsible among other things from the urbanization of the trunks in Mar del Plata) was the red brick in sight, the two waters with French tiles and the fine wood and ceramics for the interior.A little more than one block from the L’Auberge hotel is one of the best known mansions built by Dubourg that, as El País reported-has its counted days: the one that belonged to the Argentine businesswoman Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (1921-2012).The villa Aldebaran, located on Laureano Avenida Alonso Pérez and La Calle del Agua, will give way to a modern real estate entrepreneurship.According to the writer Diego Fischer, co -author of the book east of history with Silvia Pisani, long before being multimillionaire and the favorite of the Argentine magazines, "Amalita" veranea in a rented house. Tenía 23 años, estaba casada con su primer marido, el abogado Hernán de la Fuente, y había nacido su única hija, Inés, cuando arrendaron el chalet Gaimán en la Parada 7 de la Mansa."We were very few, we all knew each other and spent the day in La Brava, protected from the wind for precarious tents, colors, just some poles, canvases and without even a nail to hang the clothes," he once recalled the businesswoman.
On his birthday, on August 15, 1955, Amalia received from Fortabat the photo of a mansion as a gift.They say that he said "it's yours, you are in Punta del Este, you can do what you want with it".Then a love between the businesswoman and the main Uruguayan spa began that lasted for more than six decades.
Fischer says: “The house had its own story, it had belonged to one of the first foreigners who chose Punta del Este to live permanently.In this case it was an American, a very important shareholder of the laboratory that manufactured the digestive Alka Selzer.The man was seriously ill of cancer and searched Punta del Este the place to spend his last days.But far from dying, he recovered and lived more than a decade.He always attributed a curative power to those semi -deserted beaches hugged by pine forests ”.
Aldebaran was received in inheritance by Barbara Bengolea, granddaughter of Amalia, who died in 2012 with 90 years and spent almost the end of her days there.In 2019, when I already had a notorious abandonment, its owners asked for US $ 2.800.000 for the property: a bicoca.The house has 873 square meters built on a land of 16.441 meters and is divided into three floors.The main one has a large firewood stove, a living room, dining room and three suites.In the second there are two bedrooms en suite, a master suite with firewood stove, dressing room, hydromassage and terrace.An elevator connects the three floors.
Very close to there, in the imaginary border between the Parque del Golf and San Rafael neighborhood. Green hill estaba a la altura de la parada 14 de la rambla Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco y fue propiedad de la familia Kaplan, famosa entre otras cosas por haber hospedado al fallecido presidente estadounidense George Bush.His name came from its location: on a hill that, thanks to the meticulous work of several gardeners, seemed more carpet than grass.
It was designed by the architect Guillermo Guerra and had a built area of 1.495 square meters, on a 5 property.148 meters.Raised at the end of the 1970s, it had seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, among other comforts.The last alienation of the house was made for US $ 5 million.
One of the woven myths around this mansion led to Mohammad Reza Pahleví, the overthrown Sha of Iran.Housed on the island of accountant, and afflicted with a disease that then killed him, the monarch offered a strong sum for Green hill.It is said that the Kaplan family did not take the trouble to answer.The Persian was asylum in Egypt, where he died at age 60, on July 27, 1980.In the field occupied by Green hill, a four -story building was built.
Otro chalet de Dubourg que fue demolido en los últimos años, también en el barrio Parque del Golf, fue Malú.It was in the Rambla Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco and Avenida del Oceano and was the scene of several parties that were held in the spa in the 1960s and 1970s.The property was acquired at just under US $ 2 million by an Argentine marriage that had the objective of knocking it down to have a better view of the coast and build a pool and other amenities in its 5.400 square meters of land.
No muy lejos de allí se encuentra la mansión que utilizaba el propio Dubourg en sus estancias en Punta del Este (llamada Grey Rock, el apodo con el que se lo conoció cuando fue piloto de carreras de autos), la cual pasó luego a manos de un propietario brasileño."Only in Punta del Esteof his death, which occurred on September 13, 2003.
The disappearance of Green hill foreshadowed what would come: the profile of the area would begin to be carved with the actions of the ball subject to a steel linga and hanging from a huge crane, or by the use of explosives.In this context, the demolition of the historic San Rafael Hotel, carried out more than two and a half years ago, marked a milestone: it vanished one of the most emblematic postcards of Punta del Este. Todo el mundo espera que el megaemprendimiento del magnate Giuseppe Cipriani, que costaría unos US$ 450 millones, cambie radicalmente la skyline de la zona.Both Green hill and Malú and San Rafael were demolished by the same company.
Gathered in Ordinary Session on March 13, 2019, the Patrimony Advisory Commission and the Directive Commission of LADE Architects of Uruguay expressed concern about the demolition of the emblematic Tudor style hotel.Among other things, the architects warned that the project approved in favor of the Cipriani group was made through exceptions to current regulations, and in contradiction with the Law of Territorial Planning and Sustainable Development (18.308).Until now, there is nothing more than a huge hole in the place where San Rafael was, which was the heart of the neighborhood of the same name since 1939.
Thanks to civil society actions, press releases or agreements between the State and the private ones, some emblematic constructions have been preserved that, in a market with strong real estate pressures, could perfectly be part of the story today.One of them is in the "Avenida" Gorlero itself: the old East Station (until a few years ago exploited by ANCAP), with its tower and traditional watch.This building of the 1940s was declared a historical monument and forms, together with the Cantogril Country Club and the Carrasco station in Montevideo, a “trilogy” of works projected by the architect Rafael Lorente Escudero.Another property that was saved was Haedo's roof, built in the late 50.Today is an important museum and cultural center.Located on Artigas and Mercedes Boulevard, in the Cantegril neighborhood, La Alcotea de Haedo received the visit of personalities such as Rafael Alberti, Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Che Guevara, Pablo Neruda, Juana de Ibarbouroou and Juan Domingo Perón.Closer in time, a social and community claim of the architects managed to prevent the Poseidon house of the newspaper from the newspaper, which ended up being incorporated into the real estate project that took place on the site.The modification to the original design, which allowed to preserve the work of the architect Samuel Flores Flores (1933-2017), had the support of both the ruling party and the opposition at the Departmental Board of Maldonado.On January 29, 2018, El País published an article informing about the "imminent" demolition of Poseidon, located at the entrance to Punta del Este.The news generated the immediate reaction of neighbors, from the academic field and the family of Flores Flores, which began to mobilize to prevent one of the most recognized postcards of the spa from disappearing.Also the Faculty of Architecture and the Heritage Commission issued statements urging to prevent construction, erected in the late 1970s, follow the same course of so many quality buildings that were demolished in the Peninsula.
