Windsor Atlantica Hotel, 37-floor luxury hotel in Copacabana, Brazil.
Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana is a 37-storey, 110-metre skyscraper hotel in Leme, Rio de Janeiro, designed by Paulo Casé and Luiz Acioli as a vertical black parallelepiped resembling a monolith. It is the tallest building in Copacabana, with direct views over Copacabana Beach, the Atlantic, Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer.
The building opened in 1976 under the Meridien brand, then shifted ownership and became Iberostar in 2007. Major renovations and rebranding in 2011 gave it the name Windsor Atlantica under new management.
For 21 years the hotel hosted the firework cascade that opened Copacabana's New Year celebrations, a spectacle broadcast nationwide. The display ended after an accident on New Year's Eve 2001, when the fire brigade stopped authorising pyrotechnics on building terraces under a 1991 state law. The hotel's name has changed with each operator, from Méridien to Iberostar, Windsor Atlântica and Hilton.
The hotel stands on Avenida Atlântica at its junction with Avenida Princesa Isabel, in Leme, at the northern end of Copacabana beach. Its 39-storey black monolith is visible from afar. The building's height was allowed under an agreement with the Guanabara state government requiring it to remain a hotel.
For 21 years the hotel hosted the New Year's Eve fireworks cascade over Copacabana beach, a spectacle broadcast nationwide. The display ended after an accident on New Year's Eve 2001, when the fire brigade stopped authorising pyrotechnics on building terraces under a 1991 state law. The building's height was allowed by an agreement with the Guanabara state government on condition it always remain a hotel.
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