Perhaps as a sign of the times, the City can show as many architectural styles in its houses, buildings and parks as ideas inhabited the 20th century in which it was consolidated as a capital. Its most prominent engineers and architects left a guide to understand the evolution of construction and the changes even in private life.
Among these cases, one can resort to the work of Julio Barrios. In 45 years of experience he went from the classic designs that defined the birth of the City to the rationalism that accompanied the advancement of tall buildings.
State and private offices, apartment towers, clinics and even private homes. The tour can total 1,700 works, among which you will pass by the petit hotel on the corner of 2 and 45; the Platense Medical Institute; the “boat” room at the Jockey Club headquarters in Punta Lara (current University club); Ricardo Balbín’s house; the headquarters of the Estudiantes de La Plata club and the expansion of the La Plata Hippodrome, where the first escalator in the City was installed.
The styles explored
His first style was the classic La Plata style. “Until 1930 he did ancient architecture where his first works were the petit hotel on diagonal 80 and 2, and the house that belonged to Ricardo Balbín (49, 11 and 12) and was declared a National Historical Monument. The anecdotal thing is that Barrios built that house for his sister and then the radical leader bought it,” said architect Marcela Nacarate, a researcher who has been carrying out exhaustive work on these works for years.
During the ’40s, the engineer took a big leap in his career working for the Jockey Club, carrying out the extension at its headquarters on 7th Street that runs along 48th and 49th Streets. He also designed the first floor of the meeting room. the Club headquarters in Punta Lara, which imitates a ship. The same institution donated to that town in Ensenada, the Stella Maris Church, the Police Station and the School, all works designed by Barrios, plus the expansion of the La Plata Racecourse (stands, entrances, ticket offices and veterinary building).
Within this period, most of his work was developed under the rationalist style, many of which were the most representative in his career, and which also includes a large amount of civil, domestic architecture and apartment buildings, such as the 7 and 55 or 8 and 44.
“Going through all possible variants, Barrios’ work demonstrated the versatility of his work. Within the houses, constructions on one and two levels are identified, where many times the ground floor has a commercial premises. In corner plots, the upper floor variant of the finish with straight octave or curved lines is observed. As for the lots between party walls, there are variants that range from those that are removed from one of the party axes with greater possibility of taking advantage of ventilation and sunlight, others that occupy the full width of the lot with a simple typology modulated into three parts. and the most diverse situations with all possible combinations,” explained the architect.
In the 50s and 60s, “urban planning began to change and collective housing went from being rental houses to horizontal property, where modernity was associated with narrowness. In the ’60s, this process accelerated and the demand from the inhabitants grew, leaving aside the already old chorizo house. At this stage, with more modest but no less interesting works, the engineer explored the use of exposed brick, modulating the facades of a late rationalism. He also designed Californian chalet-type homes, which began to be adopted among middle-class families,” the researcher explained.
His wealth of work contrasts with the little that Barrios is known and recognized. “Throughout his career he adapted to the changes of each generation, demonstrating in his work an evolution in accordance with the currents and styles that developed in the Region, from classical buildings, to his well-known rationalism, ending with the typical Californian chalets with exposed brick,” said Nacarate.
The professional explained that the quantity of Barrios’ works in La Plata and surrounding areas (there are homes in Berisso, a clinic in Quilmes and in Mar del Plata he built the Hotel Hermitage), are explained by the construction quality and the social circle in which he moved. the engineer. “He had very good contacts on a social level. He worked privately and also did ad honorary works since he was a member of the Jockey Club and had links with the Estudiantes club, among other spaces. “He moved within an area where there were people with good purchasing power,” he said.
During the period in which he developed his professional activity, on average he produced three works per month. “It is not only the merit of the production, but of the passion of leaving this legacy in the city and being able to transmit it,” said Nacarate, who began his research on the professional as a hobby and transformed it into one of his main professional objectives and in his thesis topic in the Master’s Degree in Heritage Conservation, which he is studying at the International Center for Heritage Conservation.
“When I went to college by bus, I looked at details to pass the time. One day I started reading the names that are engraved on the facades and Julio Barrios was repeated a lot. From there I searched in archives and libraries but found nothing. Then I started walking around the city looking for his works. In one year I found 100 houses and in another year I found 100 more. In various parts of La Plata you can find two or even three of his buildings on the same block,” the professional recalled about her beginnings in research on the prolific engineer, who was born in 1897 in our city and died in 1964 in an accident. in Capital Federal, at 66 years old and in full professional practice.
Barrios studied at the National University of La Plata, where he graduated in 1919 as an Agricultural Engineer and in 1923 as a Civil Engineer with a Specialty in Construction. His first steps were as Chief Engineer of the Sanitary Works Study Commission of the Province and later with the same position of Chief Engineer, he worked at the Popular Savings Bank, later being Director of the same Bank.
He also worked as an engineer and appraiser in banks. He was a member of the Tender Clarifying Council of the Ministry of Public Works of the Province of Buenos Aires (1952-1955), and participated as a member, often on an honorary basis, in different social, union and sports institutions.
He carried out his professional work in La Plata, in his studio and private home, in a house of his own, where today a delegation of the College of Notaries operates (48th Street No. 716) and he also had his office in the federal capital, in the Building Comega.
Curiosities
“My theory is that everyone in La Plata has a relationship with some work by Julio Barrios but we don’t know it,” Nacarate outlined and revealed some more details about the work of this engineer: most of the houses are in the area of 1 to 13 and from 38 to 60; When he built the Paddock Grandstand (1937-1940) at the Hippodrome, he visited the United States and brought an escalator, which was the first in the City and in the country for this type of facility; in the buildings he owned, such as Plaza Italia No. 87 between 44 and diagonal 77, he did not leave his signature; They even commissioned six family vaults in the La Plata Cemetery. “It is striking that he has done so much and that he is almost not known. Many of his houses no longer exist because there were demolitions and renovations,” the researcher concluded.
With the expansion of the Hippodrome, the first escalator arrived in the City
