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Why was Avenida 9 de Julio built in Buenos Aires?

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Panoramic aerial view of Buenos Aires, Argentina, featuring the Obelisk monument, wide avenues lined with trees, and dense city buildings under a blue sky. — Buenos Aires Aerial view of the city center, including the obelisk (center), Buenos Aires.

Avenida 9 de Julio was built as part of a broader urban transformation project aimed at modernizing Buenos Aires to resemble the "Paris of South America".1

The construction was inspired by the urban reforms of Georges-Eugène Haussmann in Paris, which emphasized the creation of broad avenues to improve city layout and traffic flow. The project was part of a larger initiative to develop a network of wide avenues radiating from the city center. Specifically, the avenue was designed to be a block-wide swath patterned after the Champs-Élysées and was named in honor of Argentina's national day of independence, July 9. Although the vision for these urban reforms began around the 1910 centennial celebrations, the avenue was cut through the city during the 1930s and officially opened in October 1937.12