Faena Hotel Buenos Aires

The red brick building on Dique 2 of Puerto Madero was put up in 1902 to store grain. Its silos fed the ships that made Argentina rich before the First World War, and for most of the twentieth century it was known as El Porteño. In 2004 Alan Faena, a fashion entrepreneur turned developer, reopened it as the Faena Hotel Buenos Aires, with interiors by Philippe Starck, and gave the dockside district a reason to exist beyond office blocks.

History

Alan Faena made his first fortune with the clothing label Via Vai, founded in 1985, and sold it in the late 1990s. He bought the El Porteño building with the financier Len Blavatnik and set out to build an arts district rather than a hotel alone. A luxury hotel in Buenos Aires had until then meant the Alvear in Recoleta or the Plaza in Retiro. The hotel opened in October 2004 and was followed in 2011 by the Faena Arts Center in the former engine house of the neighbouring flour mill, then by residences and a second hotel in Miami Beach in 2015. The Rojo Tango show, staged in the hotel's cabaret since its early years, became the city's best-known tango dinner. Faena's partnership with Starck shaped both the Buenos Aires and Miami properties.

Architecture and design

The conversion kept the long brick shell and the proportions of a warehouse, then filled them with Starck's reading of Belle Époque Buenos Aires. A red-carpeted hall known as La Catedral runs from the entrance to the bar, lined on both sides with white curtains and gilded fittings. Red velvet, crystal and dark wood recur throughout; the lighting is low. The pool sits outside in a courtyard with white cabanas, an unexpected open space in a dense dock district. The whole is theatrical by design, and the staff in uniform complete it.

Rooms and suites

Rooms follow the same palette: red curtains, white walls, Empire-style furniture reinterpreted by Starck, and bathrooms with freestanding tubs. Many look over the dock or the ecological reserve beyond it. The suites on the upper floors are larger versions of the same idea, with sitting rooms, and the top categories have dining rooms. Butler service is standard across the hotel, which is unusual in Buenos Aires.

Dining

El Mercado is the grill, built around a wood-fired oven and the Argentine parrilla, serving beef, empanadas and a long list of local wines in a room done up as a market hall. El Bistró was the original fine-dining room, a white space famous for the unicorn heads on its walls. The Library Lounge, with its leather and books, is the bar where the evening starts. Rojo Tango, in the cabaret, is a dinner show of about ninety minutes with musicians and dancers, booked separately from the hotel.

Wellness

The Faena spa offers massages and treatments, with a hammam and Turkish bath among its facilities. The outdoor pool and its cabanas are the hotel's social centre in the warm months, and there is a fitness room.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts weddings, product launches and corporate dinners, and the Faena Arts Center across the street takes larger events in its exhibition hall. The cabaret, El Mercado and the pool courtyard are all used for private functions. Weddings here are typically evening affairs with dinner and tango, and planners should confirm current capacities with the hotel's events office.

Location

Puerto Madero is the renovated dock district on the eastern edge of the centre, separated from the Río de la Plata by the Costanera Sur ecological reserve. Santiago Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer crosses the dock nearby. Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada are about fifteen minutes on foot; San Telmo and its Sunday market are a short taxi ride. Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, for domestic and regional flights, is about twenty minutes by car; Ezeiza International Airport is forty-five minutes to an hour. The nearest metro stations are on the far side of Avenida Paseo Colón.