Maison Lorraine

History

Maison Lorraine occupies one of the largest plots on its block — 1,105 square metres of land on a stretch of Bela Cintra where the neighbours’ average falls below five hundred. The building already appears in the City Hall’s aerial photogrammetric survey as a consolidated tower, and there is no building-permit record for the plot in the municipal series that began in 2002: the construction predates that. The authorship of the project, the construction company and the year of delivery are not documented by a source that holds up, and for that reason are not attributed here.

• Concept: a large plot on a street of small plots, used to rise higher than the neighbours rather than to cover more ground.
• Curiosities: the municipal survey measures the tower’s height at 67.88 metres. It is the highest point on the block and on the immediately neighbouring blocks: the surrounding buildings, measured by the same survey, come in at 62.95 m (Bela Cintra 1786), 59.25 m (1714), 53.09 m and 52.70 m (Alameda Franca 1329 and 1331), 44.54 m (1744) and 38.79 m (1760). Maison Lorraine is, literally, the building that looks out over all the others there.

Architecture and aesthetics

A single tower on a podium. The fiscal plot, roughly 25.9 by 46 metres, holds a ground-level podium with a 770 square-metre footprint — practically the entire width of the land — and, on top of it, a vertical body with a 281 square-metre footprint that rises to 67.88 metres. The relationship between the 281 square-metre slab and the 250 to 270 square-metre floor plans in circulation is tight: it is a tower with very few apartments per floor, with the podium handling parking and common areas at street level to free up the entire tower for living space. The architectural authorship of the project is not publicly documented and, for that reason, is not attributed here.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: 1 tower on a ground-level podium. The number of storeys and units is not publicly documented.
• Floor areas: 250 to 270 m² in the floor plans in circulation, with 3 and 4 bedrooms. The archive also records a unit of 832 m².
• Parking spaces: 3 in the standard floor plan; up to 5 in the larger units.
• Structural features: fiscal plot of 1,105 m² (measured polygon of 1,137 m²), roughly 25.9 × 46 m; ground-level podium with a 770 m² footprint; tower with a 281 m² footprint and a measured height of 67.88 m — the tallest on the block.
• Registration and parameters: land 1,105 m² · fiscal plot approx. 25.9 × 46 m · 1 tower · 3 to 4 bedrooms · 3 to 5 parking spaces · private areas from 250 m² · floor footprint 281 m² · measured height 67.88 m · cadastral use “Condominium” · registry jurisdiction 13º Registro de Imóveis de São Pauloi · zoning ZM (Law 16.402/2016).

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Cerqueira César: the address

This stretch of Rua Bela Cintra is the seam between Cerqueira Césari and Jardim Américai: the postal service still addresses it as Consolação, City Hall’s tax register writes Cerqueira César on the neighbouring plots, and the market sells it as Jardinsi — three names for the same block, which only happens at addresses the city fights over. What is not in dispute is the geography: Alameda Francai and Alameda Tietê close off the block, Alameda Lorena and Rua Oscar Freirei are two blocks away, and Avenida Paulistai sits at the top of Rua Augusta. It is the part of Jardins where the residential street and the shopfront street touch without getting in each other’s way — and where there is practically no land left to develop.