The Hotel Miramar, opened in 1928, embodied luxury, comfort and refinement. It was once the most elegant in the country. Today it sits abandoned.
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/BloombergVenezuela Is Collapsing. So Is Its Architectural Heritage
The grinding economic crisis leaves modernist landmarks dilapidated
As Venezuela’s economy and politics fall apart, its architectural heritage is crumbling right along with them.
The ravaged country, once Latin America’s richest, is a riot of structures: parking garages used as shelter, colonial edifices, half-built socialist public works, improvised hillside slum complexes, malls without customers. But hundreds of notable buildings have been abandoned or wrecked. The capital city of Caracas is home to most of this heritage, especially Art Deco, Bauhaus and Brutalist constructions that made it a center of modern architecture in the region, along with Mexico City, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro.