Florida Street Shopping Tips

Five quick tips for a pleasant Florida Street shopping experience: • Don’t take up any offers for local currency exchange or strip shows. • Keep in mind that most of the panhandlers along Florida are professionals, it is preferable to donate to an official local charity or help someone you personally befriend. • Florida is [...]

Money Exchange & Other Hustles on Florida St.

Walking along Florida Street near LaValle on downtown Buenos Aires’ pedestrian mall, it’s inevitable to come across some shady-looking characters yelling out or whispering, ‘cambio, cambio!’ These ‘unofficial’ (read: illegal) money changers, known in Lunfardo as arbolitos, do offer dollar and euro exchange rates that are lower than the banks, but it’s not recommended to [...]

Porteño of the Week

Sebastión Castro Artisan/street vendor Age: 29 Martínez Q: How long have you been in Buenos Aires and how did you end up here? I’m from Rio Negro—El Bolson. I came to Buenos Aires four years ago after I met my girlfriend when she was visiting up there and we hooked up, so I came down [...]

Edificio Bencich and the South End of Florida St.

← cont. from: Diagonal Norte—La Equitativa del Plata Building Another architectural gem on the heavily photographed corner of Diagonal Norte at Florida Street is Edificio Bencich at Roque Sáenz Peña Avenue 615. It was designed by French architect, Eduardo Le Monnie and completed by the Bencich Brothers firm in 1927. This building, with its traditional [...]

Florida St.— The Bank of Boston Building

← cont. from: Florida Street at Diagonal Norte Facing Plazoleta Ciriaco Ortiz is the emblematic Bank of Boston Building, now Standard Bank, a 1924 neocolonial structure with a gothic touch. It’s noted for its huge 17-meter arched Plateresque-style doorway, meticulously carved from limestone. The architects of the Bank of Boston were two notable Argentine immigrants, [...]

Florida Street at Diagonal Norte

← cont. from: Florida Street—Galería Güemes through the Years At the point where Florida Street meets Diagonal Norte is Plazoleta Ciriaco Ortiz, a small triangular plaza overlooked by a series of some of Buenos Aires’ most impressive buildings. Here Buenos Aires’ early 19th century desire to emulate the urban design of Paris, with harmonious architecture [...]

Florida St.—Galería Güemes Through the Years

← continued from: Florida Street—The Gath and Chavez Building Galería Güemes is another art nouveau jewel on downtown’s Florida Street, but you wouldn’t know it from glancing at it street side. After a 1971 fire caused serious damage to the exterior of the 1915 building it was modernized and rebuilt with a rather unfortunate glass [...]

Florida St.—The Gath and Chavez Building

←cont. from: Galería Mitre—Baroque Architecture on Florida Street The eight floor Gath and Chavez building at Florida 202,  a block away from Galería Mitre is another historic building downtown that today contains a Falabella department store. This building, inaugurated in 1914, was once an elegant shopping destination, comparable to Harrods Buenos Aires. It had a [...]

Galería Mitre—Baroque Architecture on Florida St.

Galería Mitre, Florida St. 343, with its Jesuit-inspired baroque style is one of the most ornate and unique buildings along downtown Buenos Aires’ pedestrian mall. The unusual moldings of the building’s façade are inspired by indigenous art from the northern regions, where the Jesuits had many missions beginning in the 1580′s. The moldings are perfectly [...]

The World’s Most Elegant Burger King

All along Buenos Aires downtown Florida Street visitors will find beautiful historic buildings occupied by multinational corporate chains—it’s an unfortunate reality for traditionalists but these buildings, unlike the Naval Center and Argentine Rural Society, are some of the most accessible for viewing. The most notable example is found on the corner of Corrientes and Florida [...]

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