Pedro Benoit
| Pedro Benoit | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 18, 1836 Buenos Aires |
| Died | April 4, 1897 (aged 61) La Plata |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Occupation | Engineer and urban planner |
| Known for | Master plan for the city of La Plata |
Pedro Benoit (February 18, 1836 – April 4, 1897) was an Argentine architect, engineer, and urbanist best known for designing the layout of the city of La Plata.
Pedro Benoit was born in Buenos Aires in 1836 to María Josefa de las Mercedes Leyes and Pierre Benoit, a French émigré who had left his homeland following the Bourbon Restoration. His father, a trained architect, engineer and topographer instilled his interests in his son, who enrolled in 1850 at the Topography and Geodesics School of the Department of Engineering of the Province of Buenos Aires.
Gaining his first professional experience designing pontoon bridges for the Argentine Army, Benoit was contracted as a surveyor for the city of Buenos Aires. In this capacity, in 1858 he planned the first road to Ensenada, a harbor town 35 miles (56 km) south of Buenos Aires. The young surveyor was inducted into a local Freemason lodge in 1858 and the following year, he was commissioned by prominent local landowner Juan Dillon to design the urban layout for what became Merlo (a suburb west of Buenos Aires). Benoit designed Merlo following patterns similar to those used by Pierre L'Enfant to design Washington, DC. Benoit relocated to the city he helped build, designing for it the first school and the Church of Our Lady of Mercy in 1863, still the city's central Roman Catholic church; Benoit's professed Freemasonry caused the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Msgr. Mariano Escalada, to deny the new parish a priest, however.
...
Wikipedia