Polo DOT Office Park

Oct 5

Premium Commercial Space

Argentinian real estate developer, IRSA, is developing a new high-rise office park at the "T" shaped intersection of two important highways (the Avenue General Paz encircling the Buenos Aires Capital Area and the Pan-American Highway connecting it with the Northern metropolitan area). This office park, called Polo DOT, will provide premium commercial space to a growing work force that desires a more contemporary, accessible and salutogenic work environment. Amid the regional expansion occurring in and around Buenos Aires, Polo DOT is participating in a rejuvenated identity for the surrounding area, establishing it as a dynamic enclave in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

Client: ISRA
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Year: 2016-2019
Status: Built
Award of Excellence: Renovation Award | Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) | 2019

Adapting the Pre-Existing Factory Building

A multi-scale approach is taken to the design and planning of Polo DOT. At the architectural scale, a preexisting 1930s factory building, the former Philips Factory, is rehabilitated and adapted to allow the vertical expansion of four additional floors. This adapted factory provides flexible work space designed to accommodate a broad range of work environments in response to ever-evolving office technology and social paradigms. At the ground level, a three-stories-tall by four-structural-bays-wide open space contains the lobby and mechanical escalators connecting directly to the upper-level courtyard of the expanded DOT Shopping. In the second phase, an iconic commercial tower and hotel and office building will be added to the site.

Public Plaza

At the urban scale, the development is given legibility through its organization around a continuous public plaza that connects the office buildings to each other, to the street and to the adjacent mall, clarifying the office park's relationship with the sidewalk, street and surrounding neighborhood. The plaza contains a good variety of spaces, including tree-shaded courtyards, lawns and fountains, which offer spaces for relaxation, informal work and recreation. Beneath the plaza, two new levels of below-grade parking are provided with direct, interior connection to the office building.

Interiors

Infrastructure

At the infrastructural scale, a new short boulevard (Posta Boulevard) connects the site directly to the Avenue General Paz, increasing accessibility from the metropolitan region to the office park, affiliated DOT Shopping mall and the surrounding neighborhood. The new boulevard also serves as a central corridor upon which a new identity for the area can be established and organized. In short, this is a development like no other in Buenos Aires, offering unique services through a distinct work of architecture and urban design.