Lord Alain Levenfiche recently invited Andrew Rae McCance, our new Chairman, and the Buenos Aires Experience team for cocktails at his Kavanagh Building Penthouse, Piso 14.
His kind invitation was to view his apartment and discuss our Chairman’s idea of promoting the most luxurious tour of Buenos Aires City and Province, to include 7 to 14 nights staying at his landmark properties in Argentina.
We knew the ‘LUXURY LORD’ by reputation and Andrew, being British, filled in all the gaps.
Lord Alain was born in Paris 57 years ago to aristocratic British family and brought up in North West London where he ran a successful real estate business.
The ‘Luxury Lord’ who retires annually (that is until he spots an opportunity that meets his property or land criteria – landmark, the best, unique, and unrivalled – and buying and developing all over again) had acquired two marvelous properties in Argentina. The Penthouse, 14th Floor at the Kavanagh, a landmark dwelling with a ‘twisted history’ and his first project in Argentina’s Pampas, the Polo Estancia Number One on the 875 acre Santa Maria Lobos Polo Club.
Lord Alain states, ‘I am of the opinion, if people are already talking about going to a particular place then it is already too late. The smart money arrives early, before the pack of wolves arrives and split everything up.’
We arrived at 17h55 and the front of house manager at the Kavanagh building showed us to the lift that would take us to the famous 14th floor at the Kavanagh.
Lord Alain opened the door and he welcomed us in to his palatial home and ushered straight to the bar. He allowed us to sit for a while by his trademark in-house disco complete with a Studio 54 up lit disco floor and laser beam lights.
PHEW! WOW! WOW! The apartment has large windows floor to ceiling and doors that opened onto super rooftop gardens offering a staggering 360-degree panoramic view of Buenos Aires skyline. There is not one Porteño that would not sell their soul for an evening of cocktails in Corina Kavanagh’s birds nest.
I had read my notes prepared before my arrival and looked at various clipping on Lord Alain and his various properties throughout the world; I was prepared to be stunned. The 14 floor penthouse at the Kavanagh is the most amazing penthouse apartments I have visited anywhere in the world – simply amazing. As the son of a career ambassador (currently in Switzerland), I have been around a bit you know.
Alain suggested drinks and his butler mixed one hell of a Vodka Martini, and then the man who obviously loves his properties took us on a guided tour. The tour of 14th floor at the Kavanagh took us over half an hour and another two cocktails.
A quick description: 855 square meters of ultra luxury living, that how we would describe the Penthouse at the Edificio Kavanagh. Three gardens, 2 master bedrooms that have their own gardens, 3 more double bedrooms en-suite and a house cleaner or nanny’s quarters with an en-suite bathroom.
The Kavanagh Building (Edificio Kavanagh) is located at 1065 Florida Street in the barrio of Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, overlooking Plaza San Martín.
Corina Kavanagh commissioned architects Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis María de la Torre, famed for the Empire State Building, to begin work in the 1934 to construct a Rationalist style building, which they completed in 1936.
In 1999, the Argentines declared the building a national historical monument.
Edificio Kavanagh is still one of the most impressive architectural masterpieces on Buenos Aires’ skyline. Standing at a height of 120 m, it retains its impact against the modern skyline of the city, even today.
Corina Kavanagh invested all she had inherited in building her own skyscraper. The Kavanagh building has a towering form, with symmetrical setbacks and gradual surface reductions, created from the outside in to offer residents very comfortable dwellings that were modern urban living gems built at the end of Argentina’s belle epoch.
The structure designed to be as slender as possible in order to avoid unnecessary weight. The design is a hybrid of a Modernism and Art Deco American skyscraper styling, with a rationalistic approach. This is the crème-del-la-crème of Modernism in Argentina.
For many years the highest reinforced concrete structure in the world and the tallest building in South America, the Kavanagh building still arouses equal measures of love and criticism.
The upper middle classes purchased the apartments in the new building. All 105 apartments contained the latest in technology, including central air conditioning, 12 Otis elevators, and state-of-the-art plumbing. The apartments on the upper floors have exquisite terrace gardens with views of the river, parks and the city and we were in the very best of the bunch, how very exciting!
Corina Kavanagh had lived for many years on the 14th floor in the largest apartment, and the only penthouse that occupies an entire floor with private gardens.
This apartment has great history and a long line of illustrious visitors (now me) such as the Peron’s have been its guests. The rather twisted urban legend tells of Corina’s revenge on the Anchorena family and goes something like this – one of Corina’s daughters fell in love with the son of the Anchorena family, who were both wealthy and aristocratic.
The Anchorena family lived in a palace on the other side of Plaza San Martín (today known as San Martín Palace) and had built a church next to the site of the Kavanagh Building, they disapproved of the engagement to Corina’s daughter who although wealthy in their opinion had no breeding. Corina Kavanagh’s revenge was to build her skyscraper to block the view of the Anchorena’s church. A religious family, their church was important and the view constructed to remind their catholic values.
Just two owners have lived in Corina’s amazing apartment on the 14th floor of the Kavanagh building, Corina and our host Lord Alain.
Today, we are off to Lobos for the second apart of our grand tour and tomorrow we will update this series of articles on the ‘LUXURY LORD’ with details of Polo Estancia Number One on the 875 acre Santa Maria Lobos Polo Club and our unique luxury tour of Buenos Aires City and Province.
If you would like to rent the 14th Floor at the Kavanagh Building for vacation, business stopover or a party, the minimum Buenos Aires Stay is three days and we have the keys!
Watch this space as we have lunch with the Luxury Lord at Santa Maria de Lobos Polo Club this weekend and we promise our readers something very – very – special next week.
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