Instituto Bernasconi theater restoration progresses in Buenos Aires

The Ministry of Education of Argentina is carrying out the third phase of a heritage recovery project at the historic Instituto Bernasconi in the Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The work focuses on the building’s theatre and auditorium, restoring original seats, curtains, flooring, walls, ornamental plasterwork, electrical installations and terrace pergolas. Specialists are conducting stratigraphic studies to determine the original colour schemes and are fabricating moulds to reproduce historic mouldings.

The institute, inaugurated in 1929, was funded by philanthropist Félix Fernando Bernasconi and designed by architect Juan Waldorp in a Neo‑Renaissance style. It serves more than 4,000 students and staff daily and houses primary schools, a music programme, adult education and a museum. Earlier phases restored interior façades in 2024 and the library in 2025. The current restoration also uncovered an original sloped floor intended for better orchestra sight‑lines and multiple paint layers on the walls, prompting the creation of a workshop to reproduce missing decorative elements.