Maria Antonieta

History

The palacete came first. Built in the 1940s to a design by Jacques Piloni, it was designed in the image of the Petit Trianon, the country house where Marie Antoinette received her guests in the gardens of Versailles — and that is where the condominium’s name comes from, still carried today. When Gafisai launched the development, in May 1996, the house was already going through the heritage-listing process at the City Hall, a process that had begun at the start of the decade. Instead of demolishing it, the developer built the tower behind it and restored the entire palacete, turning it into a common area for the exclusive use of residents. The advertising of the time announced what no one had done before in São Paulo: a residential building whose lobby would be a palacete protected as a historic landmark. The municipal listing was ratified in 2014 (CONPRESP, Resolution 25/14, ZEPEC-385, protection level P1) and the state listing in 2019 (CONDEPHAAT, Resolution SC 49/19).

• Concept: the entrance hall wasn’t built — it was restored. The tower was born subordinate to a 1940s house the law already protected, not the other way around.
• Trivia: the condominium’s name is an architectural citation, not a marketing whim: the palacete imitates Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon. The CONPRESP heritage-listing processes date from 1992 and 1994 — prior to the tower’s launch, meaning the project was born with preservation already as a condition, not a concession. And the official record of the listed property in the municipal register carries, on the same line as the address, the architect’s name: Jacques Pilon.

Architecture and aesthetics

Two eras coexisting on a 2,500 m² plot. At the front, the palacete: about 395 m² of footprint and just over twelve metres in height, with the classic French-inspired façade that earned it its heritage listing. Behind it, the contemporary residential tower, measured by the municipal aerial-photogrammetric survey at 78.42 metres — twenty-four standard storeys with four apartments per floor. Gafisa’s restoration of the house converted the original halls into a social hall, dining room, english club, home theatre, snooker room and reading room, and the basement into a gym, dry sauna and changing room. The landscaping is by Benedito Abbudi. The authorship of the tower’s design is not confirmed by two independent sources and, for that reason, is not attributed here.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: listed palacete (common area) plus a residential tower of 24 standard storeys, with four apartments per floor in the original numbering. The 2022 Census recorded 85 households at the address.
• Floor areas: from just over 90 to 220 m², with 2 to 4 bedrooms.
• Parking spaces: up to 4, some with a storage unit.
• Structural differentials: restored 1940s palacete for the exclusive use of residents; 2,500 m² plot; tower measured at 78.42 m in height.
• Registry and parameters: plot 2,500 m² · 24 standard storeys · 4 apartments per floor · up to 4 parking spaces · registry jurisdiction 2º Registro de Imóveis de São Pauloi · zoning ZM (Municipal Law 16.402/2016), formerly Z4-018 · ZEPEC-385, Representative Property Assets category, protection level P1 · municipal heritage listing CONPRESP Res. 25/14 (2014) and state listing CONDEPHAAT Res. SC 49/19 (2019).

Leisure and facilities

• Restored palacete as social hall, for the exclusive use of residents
• Dining room in the palacete
• English club
• Home theatre
• Snooker room and games room
• Reading room
• Gym
• Dry sauna
• Hydromassage
• Massage room
• Pool
• Party room
• Playground
• 24-hour concierge

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Higienópolis: the address

Higienópolisi is the neighbourhood where São Paulo kept the memory of how the elite lived before the market invented the club-condominium. Avenida Higienópolis, in the upper stretch between Rua Doutor Veiga Filho and Albuquerque Lins, brings together within a handful of blocks Shopping Pátio Higienópolisi, Parque Buenos Airesi, Praça Vilaboim, the neighbourhood’s traditional schools and FAAPi — all reachable on foot, within a radius where a car is barely needed. Estação Santa Cecíliai and Estação FAAP-Pacaembui provide the connection to the rest of the city. It’s a neighbourhood that defends itself: it has an ensemble heritage listing, few vacant lots and a population that changes flats without changing postcode.