Sampaio Moreira Building, Eclectic architecture building in Central Zone of São Paulo, Brazil
The Sampaio Moreira Building is a twelve-storey, 50-metre reinforced-concrete structure at 346 Líbero Badaró Street in central São Paulo. Its beige facade stacks tall rectangular windows with black wrought-iron balconies, a large arched window with a small balcony at the centre, and a curved columned portico at street level. A pergola of Greek columns crowns the roof.
Built between 1920 and 1924, it marked São Paulo's start into the skyscraper era. It was the city's first tall building until the Martinelli Building later surpassed it.
The ground-floor grocery Casa Godinho, founded in 1890 at Praça da Sé, moved into the building at its 1924 inauguration. In January 2013 it became the first commercial establishment named intangible cultural heritage of São Paulo. Its counter drew figures such as Assis Chateaubriand, Adhemar de Barros and Jânio Quadros.
The building stands at Rua Líbero Badaró 346, in the central area near the Vale do Anhangabaú. It reopened in September 2018 as the headquarters of the Municipal Culture Department after seven years of restoration. The fifth floor, once the office of architect Christiano Stockler das Neves, is kept as a memorial, down to the marks where he hung pictures.
The fifth floor, which held architect Christiano Stockler das Neves's office, was restored as a memorial; even the marks on the wall where he hung paintings were kept. The building also has a pergola of Greek columns on its roof, and its Carrara marble staircases and riga pine window frames survived the 1990 renovation.
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