Reconquista Plaza Building, Bank building at Reconquista and Bartolomé Mitre streets, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Reconquista Plaza Building, built for the Banco Alemán Transatlántico, stands at the northwest corner of Bartolomé Mitre and Reconquista in San Nicolás. Architect Ernesto Sackmann gave it a corner tower with a dome flanked by two atlantes. It has two basements, a ground floor and six upper floors; the fourth and fifth were rented offices reached from Reconquista 134.
The German Transatlantic Bank (Deutsche Überseeische Bank) had occupied a building at Balcarce and Adolfo Alsina since 1914. On land it bought at Reconquista and Bartolomé Mitre, where the Banco Carabassa building by Fernando Moog had stood since 1883, construction of Ernesto Sackmann's new headquarters ran from mid-1924 to 1926, when the bank moved in. The building later housed Deutsche Bank and then BankBoston; in 2005 the NDM S.A. holding acquired and converted it to offices as Reconquista Plaza.
The building reflects early 20th-century Argentine banking architecture and showcases the craftsmanship of that era in its details. The use of sandstone, bronze fixtures, and marble interiors were typical of financial institutions that expressed their solidity and prosperity through materials and construction.
The building sits at a busy downtown corner and is easily accessible on foot, with its architectural details and entrance visible from the street. The public space surrounding the structure offers multiple viewpoints to appreciate the design and ornamental elements from different angles.
The two vaults together held about 2,500,000 kg of round iron in their structures, and the first basement kept safe-deposit boxes of 10,000 kg each, reached by their own lifts and a separate entrance. A pneumatic tube system, centred in the second basement, linked the offices above.
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