La Plata is a city with an unusual origin: it was planned from scratch in the 1880s as the new capital of Buenos Aires province, after the old city of Buenos Aires was made a federal district. Its founder, Dardo Rocha, commissioned a grid of streets with diagonals cut across it, and plazas every six blocks, a design inspired by Washington and Paris. The result is a calm, tree-lined place with a vast neo-Gothic cathedral and a university tradition.
Among its buildings is a famous small one, the house designed for Dr Pedro Domingo Curutchet by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. It is the only house Le Corbusier built in the Americas, completed in the early 1950s, and is a compact, modernist work with a ramp running through the middle, a concrete frame, a brise-soleil of vertical fins and a small courtyard tree that rises through the interior. Dr Curutchet was a surgeon who wanted a home and a consulting room together, and the design separates them with a curious bridge between public and private life. The house is now a museum, run by the local architects' association, and it joined UNESCO's list of Le Corbusier's works in 2016.
For a rider, the interest here is a city run rather than an open road. The ride from Buenos Aires goes along the Autopista Buenos Aires-La Plata, a fast, busy motorway with tolls, and the city itself has wide avenues and moderate traffic. Surfaces are generally good, though cobbles and potholes appear on side streets, and the avenues are straight and flat. The pampas around are open and windy, with fields of soy and wheat and big skies. Spring and autumn are comfortable, summer is hot and humid.
La Plata has fuel, mechanics, hotels and plenty of cafes, and Berazategui further toward Buenos Aires has more. Parking near the house is limited, so check the visiting hours in advance. Try a medialuna, a small sweet croissant, with a cortado coffee, and look for the Sunday craft markets in the city's squares.