engineering

Harrods Buenos Aires

Harrods Buenos Aires is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harrods Buenos Aires rather than just read about it. In short: Harrods Buenos Aires was an Argentine retail company based in Buenos Aires, whose building was located on the corner of Córdoba Avenue and San Martin street. The store was a branch of the famous Harrods of London which was opened in 1849.

Key takeaways

Harrods Buenos Aires belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harrods Buenos Aires to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harrods Buenos Aires from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harrods Buenos Aires was an Argentine retail company based in Buenos Aires, whose building was located on the corner of Córdoba Avenue and San Martin street. The store was a branch of the famous Harrods of London which was opened in 1849. Harrods Buenos Aires opened in 1912 and closed in 1998. Since its closure, there have been numerous attempts to reopen the store.

History

Established in 1912, a new building was erected in 1914 at 877 Florida Street to a design by the architects Chambers & Thomas. This was the only overseas branch of the renowned Harrods of London. The department store was extended in 1920, and grew to occupy almost an entire Retiro-area city block. Following its expansion, the 47,000 m2 (500,000 ft²) landmark was crowned by an eighth-story cupola overlooking Córdoba Avenue, and featured marble steps and cedar flooring throughout, as well as wrought-iron elevators with a riding capacity for twenty, valet service, and a jazz orchestra. The store was purchased by competing local retailer Gath & Chaves in 1922, and the two Florida Street institutions were, in turn, acquired by the Italian-Argentine holding company, Almacenes Argentinos, in 1970. These latter owners closed Gath y Chaves in 1974, and in 1977, sold their interest in the remaining store (Harrods) to a consortium led by Pérez Companc, a prominent local conglomerate. By 1983, the store was controlled by Atilio Gilbertoni, its former general manager under Pérez Companc, and Swiss venture capital firm CBC Interconfianz.

Store closure In 1989 the main store in Knightsbridge was purchased by Mohamed Al-Fayed and this led to conflict after Gilbertoni refused an offer from Al-Fayed for the local Harrods License. The legal struggles of the store and faltering local economy led to the closure of the stores top floors after Argentina's 1989 currency crisis. In 1998 Al-Fayed's lawsuit was dismissed by the British House of Lords and even though the store received 80,000 customers a day and an average of a million US dollars in daily sales, the stores debts resulted in the historic retailers closure at the end of 1998. Atilio Gilbertoni avoided takeover of the store rejecting numerous offers from retailers including Falabella, El Corte Inglés, Printemps and more.

Possible reopening and building restoration

In 2003 the interior was partially restored and reopened in 2003 to host periodic art festivals and other cultural events, in 2008 & 2009 the 10th & 11th Buenos Aires Tango Festival's were held in the restored zone. Representatives from CBC Interconfianz announced in March 2009 that permits had been filed with city authorities to fully refurbish Harrods Buenos Aires (which can presently operate under that name only in Argentina), and to reopen the landmark department store. A project to restore the entire store and reopen Harrods was approved in 2010 with a planned opening date of 2013. The reopened store was planned to have a tearoom and five floors of sales space then above that four floors of offices and a hotel. In 2019 it was revealed that the store building would be renovated and turned into co-working and co-living spaces which would include the restoration of the building which would take three years and cost $60 million.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harrods Buenos Aires

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harrods Buenos Aires claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harrods Buenos Aires before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harrods Buenos Aires ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harrods Buenos Aires

In research: Harrods Buenos Aires appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harrods Buenos Aires in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harrods Buenos Aires is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1914 establishments in Argentina, 1998 disestablishments in Argentina, Buildings and structures completed in 1914, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harrods Buenos Aires outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harrods Buenos Aires in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harrods Buenos Aires means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harrods Buenos Aires out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harrods Buenos Aires in simple terms?

Why does Harrods Buenos Aires matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harrods Buenos Aires?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harrods Buenos Aires.