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 | São Paulo Avenida Paulista and business centre Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 26 |  |
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Money once poured into and out of the coffee barons' mansions that lined Avenida Paulista, making it the financial hub. And so it is today, though the money is now centered in the major banks. At the height of the coffee era magnificent villas set in private parkland were built along Avenida Paulista, popularly known as the Champs Elysee of Sao Paulo. Once a residential neighbourhood, the avenue has undergone a massive verticalization over the second half of the 20th century.
Avenida Paulista is today lined with skyscrapers and clustured with radio and TV station antennas. The area is identified as the business centre of the city, notable for the large number of financial institutions and other companies competing to erect ever-taller buildings. There was little time to creativity, and along the entire length of the avenue it would be difficult to single out more then one example of decent modern architecture. There are, however, about a dozen Art Nouveau and Art Deco mansions along Avenida Paulista. One mansion well worth visiting is the French-style Casa das Rosas which is now a cultural centre.
One of the few interesting modern buildings along Avenida Paulista is the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP). Almost directly across the avenue from MASP is one of Sao Paolo's smallest but most delightful parks, the Parque Siqueira Campos, commonly called Trianon.
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| | | | Avenida Paulista and business centre: AVE. PAULISTA COMMERCE KICKING | Tip Rating: | | | | |
One of the nice things you can do is just drive around for the sake of it in the Ave. Paulista, Jardins and Pinheiros area, looking at all the people, traffic and the lit up commerce. Here I have chosen 4 different types of commerce, all part of their own chains, a bakery, a bank, a fast food joint and a pharmacy…
“Leticia” is a high end luxury bakery chain with delicious breads of all kinds, sweet stuff, nice sandwich “bar”, just sit at the counter, wave at Sé (Joe in Portuguese), scream your order and he’ll start working on it… Get a nice Cappuccino ( no Starbuck stuff ) and maybe a fresh fruit juice, how about an orange-acerola-red beet juice ? prepared on the spot …
Itaú is supposedly the third biggest bank in Brazil, the bank where I have been a client for the past 17 years, Itaú ( no idea what the name means, it’s definitely an indigenous Tupi word). modern and progressive bank, good to work with.
Then the ever present golden arches that you have to look at all the time wherever you go…(almost). What’s interesting here in Brazil is that Mac is considered upper middle class eateries….. The poorer classes can’t afford a Happy Meal for their kids all the times.
Last but not least, the pharmacy chain…. I had to drive my bro-in-law from the USA to the place so he could take a lot of pictures to show his buddies back home…
Farto must be the translation when an American wants to explain to the Mexican pharmacist that he has the flatulence… LOLOL !!.
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| | | | Avenida Paulista and business centre: Avenida Paulista | Tip Rating: | | | | |
(photo: not in Ave Paulista, but most new buildings look just like this!)
This is the main 'new downtown', one of the many new downtowns in Sao Paulo! AP is also the Wall Street of south America, with all the crazy finance and corporations located here. It was also the only ATM haven I could find in the city--I didn't even bother cashing my traveller's checks. (I had an embarrassing episode when I got stuck in a revolving bulletproof glass door and an armed security guard screamed at me in Portuguese, but Fabiola saved my butt and explained I was just a dumb tourist)
Cris, Tom's comic book drawing goddess friend, drove me around and told me how all these mammoth giant gray skyscrapers were just starting 15 years ago. all the highways and buildings sprang up so fast! just like that.
There's a most beautiful park across the street from MASP, walled and forested with pretty leafy trees and cobblestoned paths where you can eat your yummy Brasilian hot dogs.There were lots of skimpily dressed men walking around and smiling, whichI wrote off to my awful horny imagination. Later on a friend's aunt told me the park was 'horribly dangerous!' for young girls and 'full of gays!' so I guess it was a big cruising spot!
one of the guys in the park rushed up to me and squealed, 'You're filipino! I LOVE MANILA!' and gave me his phone number, which made me happy in a weird way. Leave a Comment
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São Paulo
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