Imperatriz Thereza Christina

History

The Imperatriz Thereza Christina was built in 1970 by Construtora Adolpho Lindenbergi, on Rua Padre João Manuel, in the residential stretch linking Jardinsi to Avenida Paulistai. It bears the name of Thereza Christina Maria, consort empress of Brazil, and it is not alone in that choice: the whole block was named after the court. On the same Padre João Manuel stand the Infante Dom Henrique and the Marquês de São João Del Rey; on the streets that cross it, the Imperatriz Leopoldina and the Barão de Capanema. It is a mark of an era in the building nomenclature of the area, from when São Paulo’s ultra-high-end still advertised itself through titles of nobility.

• Concept: family-sized floor plans in one of the most closed-off stretches of Jardins, with the top of the building reserved for duplex penthouses.
• Curiosities: the building was born with floor plans from 120 to 222 m², but what circulates today in the ultra-high-end market are the penthouses — duplexes of 550 and 578 m², with four suites, an uncovered social terrace and a lift serving both floors of the unit. It is a building of two readings: the body, of family flats; and the top, of houses suspended in the air.

Architecture and aesthetics

The authorship of the design is not publicly documented and, for that reason, is not attributed here. What the sources record is a building from the 1970 vintage — the generation that made Padre João Manuel vertical before the street ran out of land —, with floor plans of two to five bedrooms and up to seven bathrooms, and a crown of duplex penthouses in which the lift serves both levels, an unusual technical solution for a building of that age. The units have undergone successive refurbishments over five decades, and much of the floor plans in circulation today have been redesigned on the inside.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Units: floor plans of 2 to 5 bedrooms, with 2 to 7 bathrooms; at the top, duplex penthouses with 4 suites.
• Sizes: 120 to 222 m² in the standard floor plans. The duplex penthouses total 550 m² and 578 m² of usable private area.
• Parking spaces: 1 to 2.
• Structural highlights: in the duplex penthouses, the lift serves both floors of the unit; uncovered social terrace on the upper level.
• Registration and parameters: delivery 1970 · private areas of 120 m² to 222 m² in the standard unit · 2 to 5 bedrooms · 2 to 7 bathrooms · 1 to 2 parking spaces · duplex penthouses of 550 m² and 578 m² · registry jurisdiction 13º Registro de Imóveis de São Pauloi.

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Cerqueira César: the address

Cerqueira Césari is the hinge between Avenida Paulistai and Jardinsi: it begins commercial and vertical near the avenue and ends residential and tree-lined on the streets that run down to Rua Oscar Freirei. Rua Padre João Manuel runs through the middle of that gradient, and the stretch in the 1100s is its quietest — no street-level shops, mid-rise buildings set back from the road, and a run of addresses established since the 1960s. From there one reaches the Oscar Freire shop windows and Club Athletico Paulistanoi on foot, and, by car, Avenida Rebouçasi and Avenida Nove de Julhoi within minutes. The road network has been in place for half a century; what changes on the block are the refurbishments, not the buildings.