Puerto Madero, Administrative district on the Rio de la Plata waterfront, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Puerto Madero is an administrative district along the Río de la Plata waterfront in Buenos Aires, Argentina, built on former port docks and renovated industrial land. Red brick warehouses stand alongside glass high-rises, and wide pedestrian paths run along four parallel docks connected by footbridges.
The port facilities were built between 1887 and 1897 but quickly lost their purpose when larger ships needed deeper waters and a new port opened further north. For decades the area sat unused until the 1990s, when a redevelopment project transformed the abandoned warehouses into residential and commercial spaces.
This dockside area honors women from Argentina's past by naming every street after them, breaking with the tradition found elsewhere in the capital. Visitors walking the promenades pass residents exercising and families strolling, while restaurants along the water draw both business diners and tourists.
The area is easiest to explore on foot, as the paths are flat and well paved and stretch over several kilometers. Some of the renovated warehouses house restaurants and cafés that are busiest during evenings and weekends.
The Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve sits right beside the neighborhood and offers around 350 hectares of wetlands and grasslands in the middle of the city. This natural area grew unintentionally on landfill created from construction debris in the 1970s for expansion plans that were never realized.
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