Prestes Maia (building)
The Prestes Maia building, or sometimes simply Prestes Maia (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɾɛstʃiz ˈmaj.jɐ]), is believed to be the largest squatted highrise building in South America, with an estimated 2000 inhabitants. The complex is made up of two tower blocks, Bloco A and Bloco B, the latter of which has the address Avenida Prestes Maia, 911 near Luz Station in downtown São Paulo. Businessman Jorge Nacle Hamuche purchased the building at auction in 1993 and co-owns it with his business partner, Eduardo Amorim. The building remains registered to the previous owner, the bankrupt National Cloth Company (Companhia Nacional de Tecidos in Portuguese), where Hamuche had been employed.468 families, united through the Downtown Roofless Movement (Movimento Sem Teto do Centro or MSTC) of São Paulo, have lived in the 22-storey highrise since 2002.The building had been closed and left in a rundown condition for years. The new residents cleaned out rubbish and litter, organized it, and expelled drug and other criminal bosses. It contained a free library, workshops, and hosted autonomous educational, social and other cultural activities. In the last few years of the squat, it was an experiment in organizing a real human renewal of downtown São Paulo. The building was to be returned to its legal owner, who in the previous 15 years had accumulated a debt in municipal taxes of some 5.5 million reais (approximately US$2.2 million or 1.4 million euros), which is close to the amount the building is worth (near R$7 million).
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Prestes Maia (building) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).Prestes Maia (building)
Rua Brigadeiro Tobias, São Paulo Bom Retiro
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Geographical coordinates (GPS)
Latitude | Longitude |
---|---|
N -23.535072222222 ° | E -46.6337 ° |
Address
Rua Brigadeiro Tobias
Rua Brigadeiro Tobias
01101-010 São Paulo, Bom Retiro
São Paulo, Brazil
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