The Palace of Running Waters ( es, Palacio de Aguas Corrientes) is an architecturally significant water pumping station in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

and the former headquarters of Obras Sanitarias de la Nación. It is currently administered by Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos (AySA).

Overview

The building was designed as a water

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...

in 1877 by Swedish Argentine architect Carlos Nyströmer, and completed in 1894. It was commissioned, in part, to replace the unsightly water tower on Lorea Plaza in what today is

Congressional Plaza Congressional Plaza (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Plaza del Congreso'') is a public park facing the Argentine Congress in Buenos Aires. The plaza is part of a 3 hectare (7.5 acre) open space comprising three adjoining plazas to the east of the C ...

. Occupying a city block at the northern end of the city's Balvanera section, the Córdoba Avenue landmark still functions as a pumping station.Wilson, Jason. ''A Cultural Guide to the City of Buenos Aires''. Oxford, England: Signal Books, 1999. The

French renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define t ...

palace was covered in over 300,000 glazed, multi-color

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

tiles imported from the British ceramics maker,

Royal Doulton Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of En ...

. It features a tin

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

roof, and is emblazoned with escutcheons representing the 14 Argentine provinces of the time. The building's entrance is graced by two

caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

s, and the property, by landscaped gardens that includes a bust created by Norwegian sculptor Olaf Boye in honor of engineer Guillermo Villanueva, the first Director of the Buenos Aires Water Supply and Drainage Company Limited, the then British-owned municipal water works inaugurated in 1869. The building was transferred to the City of Buenos Aires following the 1892 nationalization of the British-owned company. The company, eventually known as Obras Sanitarias de la Nación (OSN), was reprivatized in 1993 with a 30-year contract. The contract's rescission in 2006 transferred the property to AySA, a

State enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

, however. The palace still houses a number of AySA offices, Historic Archives and a small water works museum. The building figures prominently in the book "

Santa Evita ''Santa Evita'' is a 1995 novel by Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Martínez. It is the story of the corpse of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The book became a bestseller in Argentina and h ...

" by

Tomas Eloy Martinez Tomas may refer to: People * Tomás (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese, and Gaelic given name * Tomas (given name), a Swedish, Dutch, and Lithuanian given name * Tomáš, a Czech and Slovak given name * Tomas (surname), a French and Croatian surna ...

. It is also mentioned in his book "The Tango Singer". Palacio Obras

Historic Archive

Established in 1873, this is the only Archive containing complete and specific information about emblematic buildings and water supply planning of

. This archive is composed by three main Archives.

Water Network Supply Archive

Contains plans about Water treatment plants, sewage and water network supply, drains and projects. The information found in these plans includes type, size and material of pipes, dates, architectural drawings, etc.
Size of collection: about 60.000 plans, oldest is from 1870. This archive is not available to the public. Some plans approved for public release were published through books, newspapers and websites.

Water Connection Application Records

Holds a large collection of documents detailing building category, water connection application forms, construction materials, measures, number of pipe connections, names of the owners, etc of almost each building constructed in

. Many documents are signed by famous and important people of Argentina such as president Bartolome Mitre, physiologist

Bernardo Houssay Bernardo Alberto Houssay (April 10, 1887 – September 21, 1971) was an Argentine physiologist. Houssay was a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating th ...

, writer

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

among others.
Size of collection: about 350,000 records. This Archive is not available to the public. Some documents approved for public release were published through books, newspapers and websites.

Plumbing Plans Archive

Keeps plumbing and fire hydrants service plans of 320,000 land lots of

. These plans are crucial for finding water, drain and sewage connections and fixing water leaks. This archive also preserves plans of buildings demolished during the construction of large avenues and highways of Buenos Aires, e.g.

9 de Julio Avenue July 9 Avenue (Spanish: ''Avenida 9 de Julio'') is a major thoroughfare in the city centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its name honors Argentina's Independence Day, July 9, 1816. The avenue runs around to the west of the Río de la Plata water ...

. The collection has about 2,800,000 plans, the oldest dating from 1889. Accesses is to authorized individuals. Some plans were approved for public release, and were published in books, newspapers and websites.

Exterior

File:Palacio_de_aguas_corrientes.jpg, File:Aguas Corrientes-detail-TM.jpg, Detail of the exterior facing Riobamba Street File:Aguas Corrientes-fachada-HDR.jpg, Detail of the main façade File:Aguas-argentinas.JPG,

Interior

File:Pipes in Palacio de Aguas Corrientes.jpg, ''Still pipes inside the facility'' File:Museum in Palacio de Aguas Corrientes.jpg, ''The building's museum'' File:Former_Water_Reservoir.JPG, ''Former Water reservoir, now AySA Archives'' File:Historic_AySA_Archives_.JPG, ''Historic AySA Archives'' File:Water_Company_Palace_Model.jpg, ''Model of the Water Company Palace at AySA Archives'' File:Olaf_Boye_Plumbing_Plan_February_1889.jpg, ''Historic Plumbing Plan at AySA Archives''

References

External links

Museum of Water and Health History
- Aguas y Saneamientos Argentinos {{DEFAULTSORT:Palacio de Aguas Corrientes Balvanera Archives in Argentina Palaces in Buenos Aires Museums in Buenos Aires Infrastructure completed in 1894 Water supply pumping stations Technology museums