Maison Pacaembu

History

Maison Pacaembu is at Rua Tupi, 549. The postcode and the condominium’s registration with the Federal Revenue Service say Santa Cecíliai; the building’s name says Pacaembui, the district this end of the street borders — and that is how market registries treat it, sometimes as one, sometimes as the other, sometimes as Higienópolisi. The condominium was established before the Federal Revenue Service in July 1993, and that is the earliest date that can be documented about the building. Neither the authorship of the project nor the builder is publicly documented and, for that reason, they are not attributed here.

• Concept: large floor area at the fold between Higienópolis and Pacaembu — two established neighbourhoods, with mature tree cover and a closed stock.
• Curiosities: the name repeats on the same street, and that confuses the entire market. There are at least three registrations of “Maison Pacaembu” on Rua Tupi — at numbers 251, 549 and 871 —, with different registrations, sizes and decades. This is the one at 549, established in 1993. The one at 251 is earlier, from 1985, and gathers small apartments; the one at 871 is a twenty-four-storey tower. Anyone searching by name alone, without the number, finds the wrong building.

Architecture and aesthetics

What can be stated about the architecture of this address is little, and the reason is the name itself: the descriptions of the façade, number of storeys and finishes that circulate under the label Maison Pacaembu belong, for the most part, to the same-named buildings at numbers 251 and 871 — and none of them has been adopted here. Of the building at 549, what the archive supports is the scale: at least one 380 m² penthouse. The signature of the architectural project is not publicly documented and, for that reason, is not attributed here.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Floor areas: the archive in circulation records a 380 m² penthouse.
• Registry and parameters: condominium legally established in July 1993 · Rua Tupi, 549 · postcode 01233-001 · Santa Cecília district.

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Santa Cecília: the address

Rua Tupi runs through the fabric of old streets that links Avenida Angélicai to Avenida Pacaembui — a piece of the city that postal maps call Santa Cecíliai, estate agents call Higienópolisi, and residents, often, call Pacaembui. The three names describe the same thing: flat, tree-lined blocks, mid-rise residential buildings erected between the 1950s and 1990s, walkable street-level shops and a neighbourhood life that recent verticalisation has not undone, because there was no land left to undo it on. It is the São Paulo that was built before the great office avenues and that, for that reason, can still be crossed on foot.