Ma Griffe

History

Ma Griffe stands at number 102 of Oscar Freirei, the first block of the street, counted from Rua da Consolaçãoi. It is the beginning of the best-known address in Jardinsi and, at the same time, the part that almost no one calls by that name: here the street is still residential, still Cerqueira Césari, and only becomes a shop window a few blocks further on. The tower dates from the late 1980s — public sources disagree on the exact delivery year and, for that reason, it is not fixed here. The authorship of the design and the company responsible for the construction are also undocumented.

• Concept: large floor area and plenty of parking spaces at the point where Oscar Freire is still a street to live on.
• Curiosities: the name is French. Ma griffe is, literally, “my signature” — the term haute couture uses for the label the house stitches into the garment. Few buildings in São Paulo carry a name so closely tied to the street where they were born.

Architecture and aesthetics

A single tower, with restrained lines, from the late-1980s vintage in Cerqueira Césari. What defines the building is not the façade, it is the floor plan: units ranging from 180 m² to 400 m² with three and four bedrooms, and a range of parking spaces — from three to six — that practically no longer exists in a new building on the same block, where the garage has become the most expensive item in the project. The architectural authorship is not documented in any public source and is not attributed here.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: 1 tower.
• Floor areas: 180 to 400 m² in the standard floor plans, with 3 and 4 bedrooms. Records in circulation also show a duplex penthouse and units with up to 5 bedrooms.
• Parking spaces: 3 to 6.
• Structural highlights: an unusual range of parking spaces for the size of the plot in the area.
• Registry and parameters: 1 tower · private areas of 180 m² to 400 m² · 3 and 4 bedrooms · 3 to 6 parking spaces.

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Cerqueira César: the address

Cerqueira Césari is the registry name of the neighbourhood the city calls Jardinsi. The first block of Oscar Freirei is the foot of the street: it meets Rua da Consolaçãoi, shares the block with Alameda Lorenai and Rua Bela Cintrai, and lies a few steps from Avenida Paulistai, Hospital Sírio-Libanêsi and MASPi — without being part of any of them. It is an address of dual nature: on foot, the shops, galleries and tables of the Jardins; by car, Paulista in minutes and the Estação Oscar Freirei underground station halfway there. Recent verticalisation has found very little land to grow on around here, and what exists is what was already standing.