The Gables

History

The Gables was built in 1999 on Rua São Vicente de Paulo, in the stretch of Higienópolisi the Post Office still addresses as Santa Cecíliai — the same neighbourhood fold the market never accepted and that residents resolve on their own when saying where they live. It’s a tower from the last wave of large buildings the area received before regulations tightened: 317 m² of private area per unit, one apartment per floor and five parking spaces, on a 2,656 m² plot. The developer’s name and the project’s authorship are not documented in public sources and are therefore not attributed here.

• Concept: verticality in service of view and privacy. One unit per slab, private hall, and enough height for the terrace to see over the whole block.
• Curiosities: the building has a Sabbath lift — the operating mode that automatically stops at every floor on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, sparing residents from pressing a button. It’s a feature almost no building in São Paulo installs, and it says a lot about the address: Higienópolisi has been, since the 1930s, the neighbourhood of São Paulo’s Jewish community. And there’s a measure that goes unnoticed from the pavement: at 109 metres tall in the municipal building register, the tower is more than double the height of its immediate neighbours, which sit between 39 and 44 metres.

Architecture and aesthetics

A single tower, set on a 2,656 m² plot, with a 411 m² floor plate — a whole slab for a single apartment, which does away with shared walls, ventilation shafts between neighbours and common corridors. The layout is organised from the private hall, where the two social lifts open: from there you enter the gallery, the guest toilet and the living room with multiple areas, which extends into a TV room and an L-shaped glazed terrace — the gesture that defines the apartment, because it turns the corner of the façade and turns the view into a perimeter, not a window. The private wing is served by a master suite with its own sitting area and walk-in closet; the service wing has a dining room, kitchen, pantry, laundry area and full staff quarters, with independent access. The architectural authorship is not publicly documented.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: 1 tower, 1 apartment per floor, with a private hall and two social lifts per floor.
• Areas: 317 m² in the unit currently on the market, with 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms; units that have come to market range from 314 to 334 m².
• Parking: 5 spaces, with private storage unit.
• Structural highlights: 109 m height; private hall per floor; two social lifts; Sabbath lift; L-shaped glazed terrace with unobstructed panoramic views; master suite with private sitting area and walk-in closet; pantry, full staff quarters and independent service entrance; 24-hour concierge.
• Registry and parameters: 1 tower · 1 apartment per floor · 4 bedrooms · 5 parking spaces · private area of 317 m² · plot 2,656 m² · floor plate 411 m² · measured height of 109 m · delivered 1999 · registry jurisdiction 2º Registro de Imóveis de São Pauloi · zoning ZEU (Law 16.402/2016).

Leisure and facilities

• Heated pool
• Gym
• Multi-sports court
• Party room
• Playground
• 24-hour concierge

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Higienópolis: the address

Two names for the same address

The plot sits on the border between Higienópolis and Santa Cecília, and both names are legitimate. The postcode registers Santa Cecília; the high-end market treats the address as Higienópolis. This entry adopts the name in common use and keeps the other for anyone searching by it.

Higienópolisi is the neighbourhood São Paulo built to last, and succeeded. It was born at the end of the nineteenth century as one of the city’s first planned developments, received the mansions of the coffee barons, and never lost the density of tree cover, schools and neighbourhood commerce that defines it — Shopping Pátio Higienópolisi and Mackenziei are within a short radius, and the concentration of schools, hospitals and culture is among the highest in São Paulo. Rua São Vicente de Paulo runs through the residential core, a few steps from Avenida Angélicai, Parque Buenos Airesi and the Santa Cecíliai and Marechal Deodoroi stations on Line 3 – Red, with the Centro and Avenida Paulistai minutes away in either direction. It’s a neighbourhood with very low stock turnover: those who move in stay, and large units only return to market from time to time.