Turmalina

History

Turmalina was built on the stretch of Rua Baronesa de Itu between Rua Doutor Gabriel dos Santos and Rua Conselheiro Brotero, in the part of Higienópolisi that went vertical between the 1960s and the early 1980s without losing its pavement-level scale. It’s a block that reads like a catalogue: every tower has its own name and a plaque on the façade — the Cidadela at 830, the Torre de Piza at 814, the Higher Higienópolis at 858, the Celia at 752, and on the odd-numbered side the Athena, the Amazon and the Astro. The condominium has been registered with the Receita Federal since November 1984 and has never gone out of activity; the municipality’s aerial photogrammetric survey already recorded the tower standing well before 2007. The design authorship and the exact delivery year are not publicly documented and, for that reason, are not attributed here.

• Concept: one apartment per floor in 270 m², on a 1,184 m² plot — privacy doesn’t come from the wall or the setback, it comes from a floor plan that occupies the entire storey.
• Curiosities: the building forms a mineral pair with its block neighbour: Turmalina stands at 788 and Topázio at 870 — two gemstones on the same pavement, named in the era when Higienópolis buildings still got a name before they got a number. The tower measures 63.2 m in height according to the municipal survey, which places it among the tallest on the block, above the Cidadela and the Astro.

Architecture and aesthetics

A single tower, sited on a 1,184 m² plot with a floor projection of 270.4 m². The maths is the building’s portrait: the slab measures practically the same as the standard floor plan, which means one apartment per floor, the lift opening straight into the family’s own hall and no wall shared with a neighbour on the landing. It’s the solution good Higienópolis development practised before the law and land prices pushed buildings towards two and three units per slab. The design authorship is not publicly documented and is not attributed.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: 1 tower, 1 apartment per floor.
• Floor areas: standard floor plan of 270 m², with 4 bedrooms. The archive in circulation also records larger units, of up to 540 m², consistent with a duplex spanning two floors.
• Parking spaces: the archive in circulation records 2 to 3 spaces per unit.
• Structural highlights: floor projection of 270.4 m² — the entire slab for a single family; measured height of 63.2 m; 1,184 m² plot.
• Registry and parameters: 1,184 m² plot · 1 tower · 1 apartment per floor · floor projection 270.4 m² · measured height 63.2 m · registry jurisdiction 2º Registro de Imóveis de São Pauloi · ZM zoning (Law 16.402/2016).

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Higienópolis: the address

Higienópolisi is the neighbourhood where São Paulo learned to live well in an apartment and never forgot how. Rua Baronesa de Itu runs parallel to Rua Conselheiro Brotero, through a fabric of residential towers each named individually, with a bakery, a pharmacy and a school within walking distance and no shopping centre more than ten minutes away on foot: Shopping Pátio Higienópolisi closes out the service block, Parque Buenos Airesi takes care of the greenery, and Hospital Samaritanoi organises the whole region’s healthcare. FAAP, Mackenzie and Avenida Paulistai are minutes away; Estação Marechal Deodoroi and Estação Santa Cecíliai cover the metro in both directions. In postal terms, this block’s postcode answers to Santa Cecíliai — the address is read, sold and lived as Higienópolis, and the Receita Federal itself registers the condominium that way.