On the corner of Juncal and Esmeralda streets, in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, sits a stately and imposing relic of an era of French architecture in Buenos Aires, a city often dubbed the “Paris of South America.” The residential Estrugamou Building, or Edificio Estrugamou, resembles an aristocratic French mansion with its chimneys, mansard roof, cornices, and three-story classical columns. The first wave of French architects came to Argentina in the 1820s, shortly after independence from Spain…