design stage. After the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, urban renewal became a large focus; Caracas saw "extraordinary urban-renewal plans", including Villanueva's "Synthesis of Arts" architecture, beginning with the El Silencio complex in the city center.:56 Though the campus is unlikely to be seen as an urban project by modern definitions, it is seen as among the grand architecture that put Caracas on the map and helped to promote tourism and migration.:57 In 1939, commissioned groups began the new urban planning of Caracas, but "bureaucratic obligations" restricted this to Libertador municipality.:55 The government of President Isaías Medina Angarita bought the Hacienda Ibarra in 1942, in order to expand the university beyond the limited space it had at the Saint Francis Covent. Shut down several times throughout the 1940s, the planning of the campus resumed towards the end of the Second World War.:55 Construction began in 1944, and was continuous until 1967.:57-59, 355 University City is an example of one of Villanueva's "museographic" spaces, which take the qualities of museums and apply them to public places.:350 Villanueva visited France in 1944 and again in 1948, gaining inspiration for the artistic and architectural design of the campus. In 1944 he had done the first studies and a tentative plan. Villanueva altered his designs in 1949; he was able to redesign and complicate the process because of the economic and political situation he and Venezuela were in, wanting to do so for personal and professional reasons.:355 The University City is also a model city, which supposedly brought into reality urban visions of utopia.:360 The first buildings erected included the medical complex. In 1949 the initial designs were changed, with the stadiums being built in 1950 and inaugurated in 1951. The stadiums construction signaled a new phase in developing the Conjunto Central (Central Complex) of the campus.:355 The campus construction was initiated at its western end, where it has a symmetrical design along its east–west axis. When the Central Complex began construction, the symmetry was not applied, Villanueva instead initiating his synthesis of the arts for this part of the campus design. Botanical Garden The Caracas Botanical Garden is within the campus, and contains a large collection of international plants. Over its history, it has featured species from Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. The greatest number of plants that the Botanical Garden has housed was 2,500; these belonged to over 200 species,