Charles Thays
The French botanist and landscape architect Charles Thays (1849-1934) travelled to South America in the 1880s to study its rich flora, particularly the hundreds of tree species. He settled in Argentina, where his services were in great demand, first in Buenos Aires and then in the provinces, before moving on to Uruguay and Chile. In the 1890s, municipal authorities across the country wanted their cities smartened up in time for the end of the century and later for the 1910 centenary celebrations. Also, like their European and North American counterparts, they realized that the country's fast-growing urban sprawls needed parks and gardens as vital breathing-spaces and recreational areas. Open plazas formerly used for military parades, or plazas secas , were turned into shady plazas verdes , "green squares"; Plaza San Martin, in Buenos Aires, and Plaza 25 de Mayo, in Catamarca, are among the best examples of Thays' transformations. He also designed the capital's botanical garden, officially named after him and where he's honoured with a handsome bronze bust, and the zoo - which he planted with dozens of tipas - as well as Palermo's Parque 3 de Febrero, Belgrano's Barrancas, Cordoba's Parque Sarmiento and Parque San Martin, Tucuman's Parque 9 de Julio and, most impressive of them all, Mendoza's Parque General San Martin. Thays received countless private commissions, too, such as the garden of Palacio Hume, on Avenida Alvear in Recoleta, and the layout of the exclusive residential estate known as Barrio Parque, in Palermo Chico. Despite his French origins, he preferred the informal English style of landscaping; he also experimented with combinations of native plants such as jacarandas, tipas and palo borracho with Canary Island palms, planes and lime trees. In 1890, he was appointed director of city parks and gardens and, given the high regard in which he was held, Plaza Carlos Thays, alongside the city's monumental Law Faculty, is disappointingly barren, and definitely not the best example of landscaping the city has to offer.
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