Place
Martinelli Building
Reinforced-concrete tower crowned by a rooftop villa, once Latin America's tallest skyscraper.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Martinelli Building in São Paulo centers on Giuseppe Martinelli, a Tuscan immigrant who rose from the docks of Santos into São Paulo's coffee trade before deciding, in the 1920s, to build far taller than anyone thought the ground could support. Engineers and city officials tried repeatedly to halt construction. He answered them by moving his own family into a villa he built on the very top floor, in full view of the city he had frightened.
This audio guide was created using AI.