Edifício Copan

Copan Building.

The Edifício Copan (Copan Building) is a 140-metre (459 ft.) tall, 38-story residential building in downtown São Paulo, Brazil. Construction began in 1952 and, following some interruptions, was completed in 1966. It is one of the largest buildings in Brazil and has the largest floor area of any residential building in the world.

The building was not named after the ancient Mayan city in Honduras; the name is an acronym for its original developer, Companhia Pan-Americana de Hotéis e Turismo (Portuguese for "Pan-American Hotels and Tourism Company"). The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer's office in São Paulo; Niemeyer personally designed the famous sinuous façade design. The original project envisioned two buildings, the other being a hotel, but in the end only the residential building was built. Currently, the building has 1,160 apartments, ranging from small studios to large 3-bedroom units, and 2,038 residents, served by 20 elevators and 221 underground parking spaces.[1] Due to the large number of residents, the Brazilian postal service assigned the building its own postal code ("CEP"): 01046-925. The current condominium has over 100 employees to serve residents and to conduct maintenance. The ground floor is home to 72 businesses and establishments including (since the 1990s) an evangelical church, a travel agency, a bookstore, and 4 restaurants. Its site is 10,572.80 square meters (113,805 square feet) in area.

The Copan Building has inspired writers, filmmakers, photographers, and other artists from all over the world. A short story collection titled Arca sem Noé - Histórias do Edifício Copan ("Ark without Noah - Stories from the Copan Building"), by Brazilian author Regina Rheda, was published in Portuguese in 1994 and won the 1995 Jabuti prize in Brazil. Arca sem Noé has also been published in English as Stories From the Copan Building, within the volume First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix (University of Texas Press).[2]

The building is available to build in the 2013 game SimCity

Gallery

See also

List of Oscar Niemeyer works

References

  1. ↑ "Edifício Copan" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2014-04-19.
  2. ↑ Introduction to the volume First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix (University of Texas Press, 2005), written by professor Christopher Dunn

Coordinates: 23°32′47.82″S 46°38′39.75″W / 23.5466167°S 46.6443750°W

Bibliography

External links

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