The Engineering School -- The Eva Perón Foundation

Description:

• This imposing building takes up an entire block. It was once the headquarters for the Eva Perón Foundation, a foundation Evita established to distribute funds to needy children and families, as well as, some say, siphon funds for personal use. Today there is little to mark the former use of the building, miraculously saved by the subsequent military regime, which felt it was too important and expensive a building to demolish as had been the case with other sites associated with Evita. Only a tiny plaque, affixed to a lobby column in 2002, explains the relationship -- though someone has vandalized the sign, stealing the image of Evita with it. Nevertheless, this is a grand 1940s classical building, reserved in style, with simple Doric columns fronting Paseo Colón. It is decorated with sumptuous multicolored marble on all the floors and walls throughout the structure. As an engineering school, it is brimming with students, but it still maintains a hushed atmosphere of quiet academic pursuits. The dean's office was once Evita's own. As a public building, anyone can enter it, but the school offers no information or tours based on its former use and discourages random wanderers.

• © Frommer's 2013