This Argentina Beach Town Has a Stunning Cliffside Resort, Modern Museums, and Historic Architecture

"Spurring the city's revival is the Modernist landmark Casa Sobre el Arroyo ("House Over the Stream"), a private estate that reopened to the public in 2023 after a 20-year restoration. Surrounded by parkland, the cantilevered concrete property floats at tree height. It was designed by husband-and-wife architects Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez Bunge as a retreat for Williams's father, Alberto, the founder of the Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music."

""It has really kick-started an interest in the history of Mar del Plata's architecture," says Vanessa Bell, a Buenos Aires-based journalist who leads design tours through her platform Creme de la Creme. Fans of Modernist architecture hope to also save the city's most famous 20th-century structure: the clover-shaped Parador Ariston -the only Latin American work by Bauhaus master Marcel Breuer-which was built as a restaurant and nightclub overlooking the cliffs of Playa Serena and closed in 1993."

"Fronting the glittering waters of the Atlantic, the Louis XIII-style promenade is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar renewal, its granite tiles buffed and smoothed, vegetation planted, and its sea lions by sculptor José Fioravanti returned to their former glory. Just up the coast is the oceanfront Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, where the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of the South (Bienalsur) is based."

Mar del Plata, once Argentina's premier coastal resort for Buenos Aires's wealthy elite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, experienced decline during the mid-20th century due to economic challenges and competition from destinations like Punta del Este. The city's fortunes have reversed through cultural and architectural revitalization efforts. The reopening of Casa Sobre el Arroyo, a cantilevered Modernist estate designed by architects Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez Bunge after a 20-year restoration, has catalyzed renewed interest in the city's architectural heritage. Preservation efforts extend to other significant structures, including the Parador Ariston, Marcel Breuer's only Latin American work. Additional signs of renewal include the renovation of the Louis XIII-style promenade and the presence of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, which hosts the Biennial of Contemporary Art of the South.

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