Mario Roberto Álvarez

Mario Roberto Álvarez (November 14, 1913 – November 5, 2011) was an Argentine architect.

Biography

Early life Born Mario Roberto Álvarez Elissamburu in 1913 in the City of Buenos Aires, to Juana Elissamburu and Jerónimo Álvarez. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires School of Architecture in 1932, and graduated in 1936 with Gold Medal of Honours. He married Jorgelina Ortiz de Rozas, and they had two children. the largest center for the stage in Argentina. Its success upon completion in 1960 helped secure MRA the design for the adjoining Centro Cultural General San Martín,

Though an economic crisis during the 1980s resulted in less demand for Álvarez's work, he donated his design for the non-profit Leloir Institute's new facilities (completed in 1983). Some of his best-known designs from this era include the Chacofi building, the Buenos Aires American Express offices (facing San Martín Plaza), and the Costa Galana Hotel (Mar del Plata). An economic recovery in the early 1990s resulted in a rush of landmark designs for MRA, including the Rosario Stock Exchange's new building, the Le Parc tower (completed in 1996, the tallest in Argentina until 2003), the Hilton Buenos Aires (1999) and Microsoft's Latin American headquarters (2000), numerous luxury high-rises in the Recoleta and Palermo sections of Buenos Aires, and others. Much as he had done for the new Rosario branch of the Argentine National Bank in 1983, Álvarez struck a compromise by incorporating parts of the beaux-arts façade into the new design. Other notable recent designs include the new Taravella International Airport (Córdoba) terminal, Torre Aqualina (Rosario), the new Proa Foundation cultural center building and the Bariloche Hilton, built into the mountain rock.

Álvarez won the Konex Award in 1992 and 2012, the latter being posthumous. He died in Buenos Aires in 2011, nine days shy of his 98th birthday. He was interred in the Jardín de Paz Cemetery, in Pilar.

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