Edifício Esther, Modern architectural building in República District, São Paulo, Brazil
The Edifício Esther is an eleven-storey slab on Praça da República, designed in 1934 by Álvaro Vital Brazil and Adhemar Marinho and opened in 1938. Its facade alternates white spandrel panels with dark ribbon windows, and a narrow dark strip with a ladder-like element runs down the left edge. Shops occupied the ground floor, offices the next three floors, flats the fourth to tenth, and a restaurant the roof.
Paulo de Almeida Nogueira, owner of the Usina de Açúcar Esther, launched a closed competition for the headquarters of his company; the winning design by Álvaro Vital Brazil and Adhemar Marinho was chosen in 1934 and the building inaugurated on 9 April 1938. Its construction opened two new streets, Gabus Mendes and Basílio da Gama. Mário de Andrade cited it in 1943 as an example of the new architecture against the neocolonial style.
The building housed the first headquarters of the Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil and the Clube dos Artistas e Amigos da Arte. Di Cavalcanti lived here, Rino Levi kept an office, and in the 1950s the basement club Oásis drew intellectuals; regulars there, including Assis Chateaubriand, planned the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. A mosque now operates in the building.
The building is located at Praça da República and is easy to reach by public transportation. Visitors can explore the mixed-use spaces, but should check in advance which areas are open to the public since some parts remain private.
The building's lower level housed the Oásis nightclub in the 1950s, where journalist Assis Chateaubriand was a regular. Meetings held in the Esther basement led to the founding of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MAM).
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