Praia da Barra da Tijuca

This guide to Praia da Barra da Tijuca in Rio traces the eighteen-kilometer beach back to 1969, when architect Lucio Costa drew a low-rise, dune-preserving master plan for the shoreline while a construction company, Carvalho Hosken, quietly bought up the land beneath it. It follows Costa's losing fight against that company over the decades that followed, and the highways and transit line the 2016 Olympics brought to the area. Notice how far the glass towers now crowd the sand line.