Railway Building - Avenida Paseo Colón (Buenos Aires) - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Monumental Railway Building, one of many valuable and interesting Art Noveau - Art Deco buildings in historic centre of Buenos Aires, was the first erected "skyscraper" in Buenos Aires and also in whole Latin America.

In the early 20th century, the railroads in Argentina were mostly in hands of English (or French) companies. The companies of Southern Railway (now Roca), the Argentine Central Railroad (today Mitre), the Western Railway (now Sarmiento) and the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway (now San Martin) decided to join their offices in one modern building in 1905. The result of the decision is depicted "Railway Building", deigned by architects Lauriston Conder, Paul Bell Chambers and Louis Newbery Thomas in 1907. Their project, based on ideas applied in New York' Ansonia Hotel, is combining Victorian and Edwardian style with elements of emerging Art-Nouveau architecture. Building, located on the corner of Avenida Paseo Colón and Adolfo Alsina street, was the tallest project realized in Buenos Aires at that time. The Railway Building exceeded the maximum height allowed by Buenos Aires architectural rules, and it was therefore necessary to get an exception to the rule that accepted the City Council and Mayor Carlos Torcuato de Alvear. It was completed in 1910, but when a local newspaper reported that the structure seemed to lean and was in danger, the inauguration was suspended, and the building was opened in 1914.

Railway Building became part of nationalized "Ferrocarriles Argentinos" in 1947 and later it served to Aerolineas Argentinas (from 1955).

El Railway Building es un edificio proyectado en 1907 y construido entre ese mismo año y 1910 (aunque recién fue habilitado en 1914),1 en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, siendo considerado como el primer "rascacielos" (para la época) de dicha urbe y de toda América Latina. [Wiki ES]