Chamonix

History

Chamonix dates from 1985 and belongs to the vintage that completed the residential verticalisation of Alameda Joaquim Eugênio de Lima. It is an unusual alameda in Jardim Paulista: it descends from Avenida Paulistai down to the level of Parque Ibirapuerai while keeping a residential character along almost its whole length, and the upper stretch, in the 1600s, is its flattest and quietest part. The neighbouring buildings tell the same story — Paolo Uccello at 1601, Paço do Prado at 1600, Curaçao at 1647, Las Ramblas at 1656, Araguary at 1667 —, a sequence of single towers with foreign names, built between the 1970s and 1980s, each on its own mid-block plot. Chamonix takes the name of the French Alpine resort at the foot of Mont Blanc, in keeping with the era’s taste for baptising buildings after European destinations. The project’s authorship and its development are not documented in any public source and, for that reason, are not attributed here.

• Concept: a single mid-block tower, with family-sized floor plans and double parking, on the flat, residential stretch of the alameda.
• Trivia: the name has plenty of homonyms in the city — the Federal Revenue registers three “Edifício Chamonix” condominiums in São Paulo, one in Perdizes, one in Vila Mariana and this one, in Jardim Paulista. Only the address tells them apart: Alameda Joaquim Eugênio de Lima, 1631.

Architecture and aesthetics

A single tower, a narrow vertical volume — the typical layout of the mid-block plots on this alameda, where the building gains height because it lacks width. Chamonix belongs to the generation that succeeded the modern classics of Jardim Paulista: less façade ornament, a deep floor plan, large windows that compensate for the depth by pulling light into the core, and parking resolved in the basement. The large windows are what residents mention first, and not by chance: with the tree-lined alameda and the setback of the neighbours, they frame greenery rather than a wall. On the penthouse, the floor plan spreads over two levels, with a terrace, a hanging garden and a climate-controlled wine cellar — the programme of a house within a building with a 200 m² standard floor plan. The architectural authorship is not credited in any public source and, for that reason, is not attributed here.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: single tower.
• Sizes: from 195 to 300 m², with 3 to 4 bedrooms and 3 to 5 bathrooms. The 197 m² plan has 3 bedrooms, 1 suite and a maid’s quarters.
• Parking: 2.
• Structural highlights: large windows in the living rooms and bedrooms; complete staff quarters in the standard floor plans. The penthouse, of about 290 m² over two floors, has a fireplace, a terrace with barbecue, deck and pool, a hanging garden, a climate-controlled wine cellar and a home cinema.
• Registry and parameters: 1 tower · private areas of 195 m² to 300 m² · 3 to 4 bedrooms · 3 to 5 bathrooms · 2 parking spaces · handover 1985.

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Jardim Paulista: the address

Jardim Paulistai is the neighbourhood where São Paulo learned to live well and never unlearned it, and Alameda Joaquim Eugênio de Lima is its most discreet spine: it runs parallel to the bustle of the Jardinsi without taking part in it, linking Avenida Paulistai to the level of Parque Ibirapuerai through a tree-lined corridor of residential towers. The block in the 1600s sits on the flat, low part, a short walk from Club Athletico Paulistanoi and the tables and shop windows of Rua Oscar Freirei, and a few minutes’ drive from Ibirapuera. The surroundings handle daily life without leaving the neighbourhood: Estação Brigadeiroi and Estação Trianon-MASPi at the top of the alameda, Shopping Pátio Paulistai and Hospital Sírio-Libanêsi on the Paulista axis, and Avenida Brigadeiro Luís Antônioi as a quick way out towards downtown and the ring roads. It is an address established for decades, where recent verticalisation has found little land to grow on.