, by Martin Jules.
Construction Paulista Avenue was constructed in 1891 by
Joaquim Eugênio de Lima (1845-1902), a Uruguayan-Brazilian civil engineer. Once a residential neighbourhood thoroughfare flanked by lavishly ornate mansions with Arabesque and European themes of the city's coffee barons and industry entrepreneurs such as the Matarazzo family. Paulista Avenue Number One belonged to the Von Bülow family, founders and operators of the
Antarctica brewery. It became the first paved street in São Paulo in 1909.
Asphalt was imported from Germany to complete the project. A master plan for the avenue titled
Plano de Avenida (English: Avenue Plan) was devised by Mayor
Francisco Prestes Maia in 1930 during the regime of President
Getúlio Vargas. It was based on
David Burnham's master plan for
Chicago, and attempted to control urban growth of São Paulo. The plan promoted the decentralization of urban areas, development of automobile routes, and construction low-cost and high-density housing. The first multi-story building on the avenue was a seven-story structure at the corner of Paulista and Frei Caneca constructed in 1939. The most important of the ones which still stand to this day is
Casa das Rosas, near Praça Osvaldo Cruz in the very beginning of the long avenue. It was turned into a cultural center in the late 1980s. The house has oil/hydraulic heat radiators, a luxury only the millionaire could afford.
Modernization Paulista Avenue underwent a massive renovation and verticalization effort beginning in the 1950s, a trend that followed president
Juscelino Kubitschek's vision of rapid economic expansion of Brazil. Developers pressured legislators to allow for the removal of Neoclassical, Hindu-style and Middle Eastern structures along the street. These and other buildings were torn down overnight to avoid popular resistance. The avenue became home to financial institutions and it became a symbol of the economic power of the
State of São Paulo. The concentration of commerce on Paulista Avenue in the 1950s attracted a new population of middle class residents in the area, both at the expense of the city's historic downtown area. The change in economic, social, and cultural status of São Paulo, as exemplified by Paulista Avenue, attracted migration from poorer areas of Brazil and the subsequent appearance of
favelas at the perimeter of the city. Paulista Avenue again underwent significant structural renovation in 1972. The "Novo Paulista" (English: New Paulista) master plan of Mayor
José Vicente Faria Lima significantly increased the vehicle capacity from 20,000 vehicles per day to more than 100,000 at present. All trees along the avenue, numbering 182 on the right and 140 on the left, were declared eyesores and the trees were removed to accommodate the increase in transportation routes. Current trees on the avenue, which are in number 390, are the result of replanting between 2007 and 2008. ==Transportation==