Hotel Excelsior, Heritage hotel in República District, São Paulo, Brazil.
Hotel Excelsior is a 22-story modernist building at Avenida Ipiranga 770 and 786 in central São Paulo, completed in 1943 to a design by Rino Levi. It is made up of two volumes: a lower base containing the former Cine Ipiranga cinema, which seated 1,000 people, and a narrower, set-back upper tower housing the hotel. The hotel has 186 rooms and suites.
Hotel Excelsior opened in 1943 on Avenida Ipiranga, designed by Rino Levi together with the Cine Ipiranga, whose first screening was the film Seis Destinos. The cinema drew audiences with its acoustics and three-tier auditorium, and the building became a listed property: CONDEPHAAT authorised protection on 25 October 2010 and confirmed it on 12 May 2014, after the city paid five million reais in expropriation to the former owner, Inmobiliária Savoy.
The building's name comes from the Cine Ipiranga, the cinema that operated on its lower floors from 1943 until February 2005; its first screening was the film Six Destinies. The cinema was later split into two smaller halls, and in one of them the original ceiling, first-level seating and lighting were kept. The hotel and cinema had separate entrances on the ground floor.
The hotel is located near República underground station, offering easy access to the Theatre building, the Art Museum, and Paulista Avenue. Its central location makes it a practical starting point for exploring downtown on foot.
The Cine Ipiranga, which opened with the film Six Destinies, was split into two smaller screens after audiences declined; in one of them the original ceiling, first-level seating and lighting were kept. The city expropriated the building for five million reais from Imobiliária Savoy to save it from a shopping centre project.
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