Cultural centre opened seven years after Argentinian-American architect’s death
Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed the final project by its founder César Pelli, seven years after the Argentinian-American architect’s death.
The Lola Mora Cultural Centre, set at the foot of the Andes in north-west Argentina, is an art gallery dedicated to pioneering Argentine sculptor Lola Mora.
The building, Pelli Clarke & Partners’ first cultural project in South America, brings six of Mora’s monumental Carrara marble sculptures together for the first time in more than a century.
Mora’s allegorical sculptures were originally commissioned for the Palace of the Argentine National Congress in Buenos Aires in 1906 but later donated to the province of Jujuy, where they stood exposed to the elements for over a century.
Pelli, whose best known works include One Canada Square in Canary Wharf and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, designed the cultural centre prior to his death at the age of 92 in 2019 with its delivery led by Pelli’s son Rafael Pelli.
The curving, elongated building spans a natural ravine above the city of San Salvador de Jujuy on a 1.3ha site surrounded by dense subtropical forest.
Visitors enter through a narrow, corridor-like bridge spanning the ravine that gradually widens into the building’s main lobby and exhibition hall clad in floor-to-ceiling windows which allow Mora’s sculptures to be viewed against a backdrop of forest and mountains.
Beyond the exhibition hall, the building also houses an interpretation centre, a restaurant, a library, gift shop and atelier for visiting artists and temporary exhibitions.
The scheme’s gardens were designed by Balmori Associates, the landscape practice founded by Cesar Pelli’s late wife Dianai Balmori.
Rafael Pelli, who is a partner at Pelli Clarke & Partners, described the opening of the gallery as “both a professional and personal honor for our firm and my family”.
“My father, a native of the Argentine Northwest, admired Lola Mora’s work froma young age. To create a space that celebrates and carries forward her legacy, in a community so close to my heart, is a true privilege,” he said.
Cesar Pelli was born in San Miguel de Tucumán in 1926 and moved to the US in 1952 with Balmori, where he worked with Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen for ten years on projects including the TWA terminal at John F Kennedy Airport.
He became known for designing high-rise office schemes across the globe including the World Financial Centre in New York, the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong and the Torre de Cristal in Madrid.
Postscript
All images credited to Jason O’Rear
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