Hotel Llao Llao (Bariloche)

When Alejandro Bustillo (*) saw his project adopted for the construction of a hotel of luxury on the edges of the lake Nahuel Huapi, perhaps he did not owe it only to his only architect talent. The function his brother occupied then, was undoubtedly useful to him: Exequiel Bustillo was indeed the National parks Director and thus well placed to attribute this public market . Alejandro did not need however his brother pulled string for him. 23 years old in 1912, he had obtained the First Price of the National Exhibition of Painting without ever having exposed before. 2 years later, he was graduate school of architecture.
From 1923 to 1937, he constructed many private mansions of the Argentinian high society. In 1925, he directed his first important building site : that of the Tornquist Bank. The first foundations of Llao Llao were dug in 1936. More than 5000 trees will be cut down for its realization. Only stone and of wood made, surmounted of a tiled roof of alerce, the hotel is inaugurated in great ceremony, on December 31, 1938.Less than one year later, on October 29, 1939, a terrible fire ravage it entirely but the Bustillo brothers finds both morals and financial resources to rebuild it. On December 15, 1940, Llao Llao rises again from his ashes.
The hotel will know a decline during the Seventies until its closing in 1979. The "Club Méditerranée" will acquire it in 1985. Entirely renovated in 1993, after having changed owner, it is today one of the most prestigious establishments of planet.

(*) Alejandro Bustillo (1889-1982) Argentinian architect who built : the Bank of the Nation (Bs As), the hotel Continental (Bs As), the building Martinez de Hoz (head office of the SIDE - Bs As), the National Museum of the Art schools (Bs As), Headquarters of the Otis companies and Volta (Bs As).