Located at 576 Congonhas Street in the Santo Antônio neighborhood, the Pezzi Building is a structure currently undergoing the historic preservation designation process. It was built in the 1950s in the Art Deco style and is in reasonably good condition. It is situated on the corner where the Santo Antônio Urban Complex is located, characterized by a row of 1930s houses that form a residential block on Congonhas Street.
The three floors are nearly identical, all laid out according to the original design—there are three units, each with three bedrooms, all much brighter. There are two types of windows: in the bedrooms and living rooms, double-hung wooden windows with shutters and clear glass; in the bathrooms and utility areas, casement windows with frosted glass.
The common area is defined by an open U-shaped stairwell and a light well that provides natural light to one of the three apartments on the standard floors. The two side facades have a much less refined design and combine wooden windows, cast-iron casement windows, and balconies adjacent to the utility areas.
The structure is made of reinforced concrete (a triad of columns, beams, and slabs), including a slab above the top floor. Although not visible from the outside, the roof features a wooden frame with French tiles and has a rectangular plan with eaves and a hipped roof.
On the same lot there is also a 1920s house which, although not a listed building, will be preserved. Also in the Art Deco style, it has two stories, a facade with a veranda, overhanging eaves, a ground floor clad in irregular stones, and a roof with French tiles hidden by a horizontal parapet. The side facades are much simpler and feature small-paned windows, predominantly tilt-and-turn windows with frosted glass. The rear facade has been significantly altered, including an addition covered with corrugated asbestos-cement roofing.
There is also a courtyard at the back of the house featuring a mango tree and several banana trees. Although located on the same lot, the house and the building are separated by a wall.
Finally, there is a small outbuilding adjacent to the house that faces the courtyard. It has an Art Deco façade and, although it has lost much of its original character, it will also be preserved.
The new Pezzi: a radical retrofit
Our project preserves the three existing buildings to the greatest extent possible.
The building will have an additional floor—an extruded floor. The facade of this fifth floor will feature a crowning element made of brown rectangular aluminum tubes, with 50% open area, installed on the same plane as the original facades. The facades facing Congonhas and Leopoldina streets will be fully preserved, while the two side facades will be modified to accommodate the new floor plans. These plans create a building with more residential units: the standard floor will have five units, the extended floor will have four units, and the ground floor will be used as a garage. All floors feature two-bedroom and one-bedroom units.
The house will be integrated into the building: the wall separating them will be demolished. The house’s courtyard will be shared by the residents; it will be connected to the building by an accessible ramp and a staircase, both outdoors. Wooden decks and landscaping featuring ornamental groundcover plants complete this backyard, which is dominated by a monumental mango tree.
The outbuilding will serve as a communal kitchen (gourmet area) and also as a coworking space for residents during business hours. The ground floor of the house will also be for communal use: an accessible bathroom, a party room, and a laundry room. The second floor will be subdivided into two one-bedroom units.
The complex seeks to integrate two previously separate buildings. The color of the house’s window frames—all yellow—extends to the building’s garage, while the aluminum railing in the courtyard echoes the extruded flooring that crowns the historic building. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve a certain architectural unity, while acknowledging from the outset that certain differences must be preserved and embraced, given that these are two structures built in different eras (one from the 1920s, the other from the 1950s).