Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista in Portuguese, Paulista being the gentilic for those born in São Paulo state) is one of the most important avenues in São Paulo, Brazil. The 2.8 kilometre thoroughfare is notable for headquartering a large number of financial and cultural institutions, as well as being home to an extensive shopping area and to Latin America's most comprehensive fine-art museum, MASP.[1] Since the 1960s, the avenue has been identified as one of the main business centers in the city. Being one of the highest points in São Paulo, it is distinctively clustered with radio and TV stations antennae, such as Gazeta's. The road is served by a subway line and many major bus routes. The avenue, which was inaugurated in December 1891, is generally regarded as the most expensive real estate anywhere in Latin America.
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Once a residential neighbourhood thoroughfare flanked by lavishly ornate mansions with Arabesque and European themes of the city's coffee barons and industry entrepreneurs such as the Matarazzo family, the avenue has undergone a massive verticalization from the 1950s on. Impressive Neo-Classic, Hindu-style and Middle Eastern architectonic structures were then illegally torn down overnight as a precaution against fiscalization or resistance from the population, basically students and artists, who would dare to promote protests during a military-ruled area. The only mansion worth visiting today is Casa das Rosas, near Praça Osvaldo Cruz in the very beginning of the long avenue. It was turned into a cultural center in the late 1980s. The house has oil/hydraulic heat radiators, a luxury only the millionaire could afford and something that could be of good use on very cold and damp nights and mornings of past São Paulo winters. A wide garden with rose specimens planted in the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries still refreshes the senses of passersby of a polluted city that lacks recreational parks for all of its inhabitants.
Paulista is home to a small native forest park, the Parque Siqueira Campos, commonly called Trianon, and to the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo). MASP is known not only for its excellent collection of European and national paintings, sketches, and sculptures by Renoir, Picasso, Trasila do Amaral, and other Modernist Brazilian authors, but also for the remarkable modern architecture of its building, whose exhibition room is made of a single block of concrete and glass windows suspended and supported by two vertical concrete columns so the view of 9 de Julho Avenue and the Cantareira mountain range north of here is not spoiled. The empty space or vault covered by cobblestones is used by the Feira de Antiguidade—Antique fair—every Sunday, open movie projections and other cultural and political manifestations. Dedicated in 1968 by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, MASP is a city landmark.
The avenue is home to some of the world's biggest financial institutions and a symbol of the economic power of State of São Paulo, along with the newer Avenida Berrini, and Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, further south from here.
It's estimated that more than 800 thousand Paulistas commute to Avenida Paulista daily. Traffic is often bumper-to-bumper, particularly because of the many bus lines that go across it to the West, South, North, and East sides of the city.
The São Paulo Gay Pride Parade in May/June, considered the largest in the world, and the Sao Silvestre Marathon on New Year's Eve take place on this avenue yearly. Celebrations of local soccer teams and world cup championships and Political demonstrations also have Paulista as a stage.
The avenue has an efficient subway system, with the Line 2 (Green Line) of the Metrô (São Paulo's Metro system) running underneath the avenue from one end to the other. This line, which is still relatively new and under construction, connects the East and West sides of the metropolis having transfers to the Line 1 (Blue Line), the Line 4 (Yellow Line), and a shuttle connects the West Side Vila Madalena station north to the Palmeiras-Barra Funda station on Line 3 (Red Line) .
Paulista is often compared to Fifth Avenue in New York, perhaps more because of its financial, cultural and commercial status, although it is more spacious, having two carriageways, with traffic going in opposite directions.
It goes across the sections of Paraíso, Bela Vista, Jardim Paulista, Cerqueira Cesar and Jardim America, ending in Higienopolis. Its major crossroads are Avenida Brigadeiro Luis Antonio, Rua Augusta, Haddock Lobo, and Rua da Consolação. Parallel to it are Cincinato Braga, Joaquim Eugenio de Lima on the Bela Vista/Paraíso side and Alameda Sanãtos and the fancy Coronel Oscar Freire on the Jardins side. Oscar Freire is said to be one of the most beautiful streets in the world, with expensive apartment buildings, luxurious clothing stores, restaurants and gourmet shops.
The area is also renowned for excellent private schools such as Maria Imaculada school for girls; the Anglican Saint Paul's school; Dante Alighieri private school, Alumni English Language Institute, São Luis University and School, Casa di Cultura Italiana, and Objetivo Prep School. The Rodrigues Alves public school, in front of Hospital Santa Catarina, is housed in a beautiful yellow neo-classic building.
Amongst the Paulista avenue cultural centers are Centro Cultural Itau near Casa das Rosas in Paraiso with frequent exhibitions, the Centro Cultural FIESP/CIESP, near the MASP subway station, which besides its exhibitions of arts and crafts, houses the famous Teatro Brasileiro de Comedia with free tickets distributed weekly. Some of the São Paulo's best hospitals such as Hospital Alemão Osvaldo Cruz, Paulistano, Clinicas, Emilio Ribas and Beneficencia Portuguesa are also in the area. Center Tres, Conjunto Nacional, Winston Churchil building, Gazeta and Shopping Paulista mall have coffee shops, internet facilities, restaurants, luncheonettes, shops and/or movie theaters.
Some of the remaining mansions and banks are annually decorated during the Christmas season, drawing crowds for picture taking. Despite having different shopping centers, eateries and cultural facilities that cater to the populations of each region of this sprawling state capital, São Paulo city takes pride in choosing Avenida Paulista as its most expressive symbol. It's the richest Latin American city.
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