Modernism in South America: Celebrating Argentina’s Iconic Casa sobre el Arroyo

Join us for an evening dedicated to the impact and legacy of the modernist movement in South America with an inside look at the incredible transformation of Argentina’s Casa sobre el Arroyo, the first South American modernist structure project to be awarded the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize. 

From vandalism to fire, the House on the Arroyo was designed by Amancio and Delfina Galvez Bunge de Williams in Mar de Plata in 1943. The building faced many conservation challenges in its almost eighty years of existence before a seven-year restoration project led by the Ministries of Culture and Public Works of Argentina and the Municipality of Mar del Plata brought it back to life.  

The evening will feature a panel discussion moderated by Javier Ors Ausín, Program Manager at World Monuments Fund, with guest speakers Fabio Grementieri, 2024 Modernism Prize winner; Magali Marazzo, General Director of Casa Sobre el Arroyo - Casa del Puente Museum; Barry Bergdoll, Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University; and Susan Macdonald, Head of Buildings and Sites at The Getty Conservation Institute. 

The panel will be preceded by a memorial tribute to Jean-Louis Cohen, a valued member of the Modernism Prize jury. A leading authority on modernism and twentieth-century urbanism, Cohen played a crucial role in raising awareness of the conservation challenges facing modernist buildings around the world and the innovative work being done to preserve them.  

Presented in partnership with Knoll, the event will be held at the iconic and newly-renovated modernist Black Rock building in New York City, the only skyscraper designed by architect Eero Saarinen. 

Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2023 
Time: 6:00 pm ET 
Location: Black Rock, 51 West 52nd Street, New York City, NY 

This event has already taken place.
 

About the Speakers

Fabio Grementieri 

Partner G+K  

2024 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize winner 

Fabio Grementieri is a partner at the architectural practice G+K and Director of the Preservation Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. He has done preservation work at Errazuriz, Bosch, Pereda palaces, Villa Ocampo, Alvear and Plaza Hotels and many other private and public Argentine 19th and 20th century landmarks. Grementieri also organized International Conference “Architectural Culture around 1900 – critical reappraisal and heritage preservation” held in Buenos Aires in 1999 that inspired the creation of the World Heritage Center Program on Modern Heritage (2001-2005).   

Grementieri was Member of the National Commission of Monuments of Argentina from 2016 to 2022 and has held several prominent advisory roles, including Advisor to the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina. He was project manager of two Getty Grant Projects: for the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires and for Escuela Manuel Belgrano in Cordoba. He received the Henry Hope Reed Award in 2009.  Among other titles, Grementieri has authored: Argentina Natural and Cultural Heritage (2008) and Buenos Aires Capital of Entertainment (2008). 

Barry Bergdoll 

Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University 

Chairman of the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize Jury 

Barry Bergdoll is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University. Professor Bergdoll’s broad interests center on modern architectural history. Trained in art history rather than architecture, he has an approach most closely allied with cultural history and the history and sociology of professions. He has studied questions of the politics of cultural representation in architecture, the larger ideological content of nineteenth-century architectural theory, and the changing role of both architecture as a profession and architecture as a cultural product in nineteenth-century European society. In exhibitions at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and at the Museum of Modern Art, where he served as Philip Johnson Chief Curator from 2007 to 2013, Bergdoll has offered a series of exhibitions intended to offer more inclusive visions of subjects from Mies van der Rohe (and his relationship to garden reform and landscape), the Bauhaus, Henri Labrouste, Le Corbusier, Latin American post-war architecture, and most recently Frank Lloyd Wright. 

Susan Macdonald 

Head of Buildings and Sites at The Getty Conservation Institute 

Member of the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize Jury 

Susan Macdonald, Head of the Buildings and Sites Department at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) where she oversees a portfolio of international projects that aim to advance conservation practice across a variety of challenges. Susan trained as an architect with qualifications in conservation and urban planning. She has worked as a conservation architect in private practice and in the government sector in Australia and in the UK. Susan has been involved in a wide range of conservation issues from urban planning, development, economics, policy and technical matters. She has a particular interest in 20th century heritage conservation, oversees the GCI’s Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, has been involved in several world heritage nominations, and has published widely on this topic. She is a member of Docomomo and APTi’s specialist technical committees on modern heritage and is the current Co- President of the ICOMOS International Specialist Committee on 20th century heritage. 

Magali Marazzo

General Director of Casa Sobre el Arroyo - Casa del Puente Museum

Magali Marazzo is a member of the National Commission of Monuments, Places and Historical Assets in Argentina, an organization that is responsible for the study and conservation of the National architectural heritage, providing technical assistance for conservation and restoration of the monuments nationwide. Magali is a Museologist, Cultural Manager and is pursuing a Master's Degree in Management and Intervention of Architectural and Urban Heritage. She is the Argentine representative in the Modern Architecture group for the Cultural Heritage Commission of MERCOSUR. She worked as Director of the Secretaría de Obras y Planeamiento Urbano of Mar del Plata, and Director of the Casa sobre el Arroyo Museum. In 2010, she began the management project to rescue the house, joining the Association to defend Mar del Plata’s heritage, which in 2012 she managed to include the house in the Word Monument Watch. In 2020, she was in charge of managing the Comprehensive Plan for the restoration and enhancement of the Casa sobre el Arroyo heritage complex before the Argentine National State. In this sense, she occupied a transversal role, articulating the work between the Ministry of Public Works (DNA-DNGO), Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of General Pueyrredon. She inaugurated, together with the Argentine President and the Ministers of Culture and Public Works of the Nation, the restored house in April 2023.

Javier Ors Ausín  

Program Manager, World Monuments Fund 

Javier Ors Ausín is an architect and Program Manager at World Monuments Fund (WMF), where he oversees the organization's three special programs on Modern Architecture, Jewish Heritage, and Crisis Response, and a diverse portfolio of conservation field projects in different countries across the world.
 
He has presented his field work and research at various forums, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Architectural Historians, and various ICOMOS symposium, and has been a guest critic in many universities. Javier holds Bachelor of Building Engineering and a Master in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, and a Master in Design Studies in Critical Conservation from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.