The Martinelli Building

The Martinelli Building is part of the most important architectonic document about the transition from the flat city, build with bricks, to the skyscrapers, a tendency that was taking place since the second half of this century. It became a mark and a symbol of the vertical growth of São Paulo. Projected by the Italian Giuseppe Martinelli to be the biggest building in South America, its construction happened between 1924 and 1929, and it was the first construction in concrete, a technology brought from Europe by Martinelli himself. The building was opened in 1929 with twelve floors but its construction continued until 1934, when it was finally finished with thirty floors and 130 meter high, breaking completely the horizontality of São Paulo`s landscape. Without support from the government to finish his work, Martinelli was forced to sell a part of his enterprise to the "Istituto Nazionale di Credito per il Lavoro Italiano all'Estero" of the Italian government, which was the reason why the Brazilian government took the building for themselves, after the end of the Second Great War. The building became an important post card of the city, attracting many tourists and visitors that were speechless by the impressive work. Many political parties had their HQ in the building, also many clubs, associations and unions. After a long period of success came the decline of the building, in the 60`s and 70`s, when all sort of problems happened. In 1975 the town hall decided to totally renovate the building, which was reopened in 1979 and it`s still in the current conditions, occupied today by the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação e Planejamento, the companies Emurb e Cohab-SP, the HQ of the bankers union of São Paulo and many shops on the ground floor of the building. There is a beautiful balcony on the 26º floor from where you have an overview of the city. In this space was also rebuilt the "Casa do Comendado" (House of Commander) which is a replica of an Italian Village, where the elite of São Paulo met for sumptuous parties.