Edificio Banco Santander Río, Modern bank building in financial district, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Edificio Banco Santander Río is an office tower designed in 1977 by Mario Roberto Álvarez y Asociados and inaugurated in 1983 as the headquarters of the Banco Español del Río de la Plata. Its glass curtains, originally transparent black, were painted white at the request of the Mothers of Plaza of Mayo. The bank occupied the basement and floors 1 to 4, the ground floor served as entrance hall, floors 5 to 14 held rental offices, and floors 15 and 16 were VIP areas; a separate concrete volume on top houses the machine rooms.

Designed in 1977 by Mario Roberto Álvarez y Asociados, the building was inaugurated in 1983 as the headquarters of the Banco Español del Río de la Plata. It rose on a site previously occupied by the Royal Insurance Company, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian embassy. The bank was later renamed Banco Santander, and the building took the name Banco Santander Río.

The white median wall creates a visual frame for the Metropolitan Cathedral visible from certain angles, establishing a deliberate connection between the banking quarter and the city's religious center. This design choice shows how the structure relates to what surrounds it rather than standing apart.

The building faces the Metropolitan Cathedral across a public plaza created by setting the facade back from the street line, which widens the narrow, congested sidewalks for pedestrians. The entrance hall occupies the ground floor, while the banking floors below and above it are working offices; the upper levels and the separate concrete machine-room volume at the top are not open to visitors.

The white painted glass facade came about following a request from the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who sought to incorporate Latin American elements into the building's appearance. This unusual collaboration between a financial institution and a social movement reflects how deeply architecture and community concerns are intertwined in the city.