Planalto Building: the story behind Artacho Jurado's project

Amid the historic landscape of downtown São Paulo, the Planalto Building stands out for its colors, shapes, and balconies that break away from the predominant sobriety of many of the city's modern buildings.

Edifício Planalto (Wagner Tamanaha/Wikimedia Commons/Divulgação)

Designed by Artacho Jurado and inaugurated in 1956, the building turns 70 in 2026 as one of the most emblematic constructions of São Paulo architecture from that period.

Edifício Planalto (Wagner Tamanaha/Wikimedia Commons/Divulgação)

Located on Rua Maria Paula, in the Bela Vista district, the building is also a synthesis of the ideas that made Jurado a singular figure. Self-taught and an entrepreneur, he created his own language, combining references from modernism with ornamental elements, vibrant colors, and communal spaces.

Who was Artacho Jurado?

(Acervo Família Jurado/Divulgação)

João Artacho Jurado was born in São Paulo in 1907, the son of Spanish immigrants. Without formal academic training in architecture, he began working in the sector in the 1930s and gained particular prominence from the 1940s and 1950s, when he founded the Monções Construction and Real Estate Company.

The lack of traditional training, however, caused his work to face resistance among modernist architects. His projects were often considered excessively ornamented by the standards of the time. Decades later, that same characteristic came to be understood as a fundamental part of his originality.

Jurado developed an architecture focused on the experience of living, with developments that incorporated leisure areas, terraces, commercial spaces, and communal areas. Instead of relying solely on the rationality of floor plans and facades, his buildings also sought to create an atmosphere of comfort, fun, and elegance.

The architecture of the Planalto Building

The Planalto Building brings together 294 apartments distributed across 26 floors, with units ranging from 44 to 127 sq m. The complex is made up of articulated blocks and has approximately 21,960 sq m of built area.

On the facade, the extensive balconies create striking horizontal lines. The design also explores colored tiles, cobogós, plaster details, and various ornamental elements, features that help build an immediately recognizable visual identity.

Edifício Planalto (Monica Kaneko/Creative Commons/Divulgação)

The composition distances itself from the idea that modern architecture must necessarily be austere. At Planalto, structure and functionality coexist with an evident concern for appearance and the experience of residents.

The striking colors of the Planalto Building

(Divulgação/Divulgação)

Artacho Jurado's relationship with colors is among the most interesting aspects of his work. According to researchers and records about his career, a trip to Rio de Janeiro reportedly reinforced his perception that São Paulo had excessively gray architecture.

Jurado then began to incorporate more vibrant colors and elements inspired by urban visual culture, including references to the neon signs he himself had designed before establishing himself in the real estate market.

At Planalto, this choice appears clearly. Shades of pink, blue, and other chromatic details transform the facade into a graphic presence in the landscape.

A building designed for urban life

Another important aspect of the project is the way Jurado understood the residential building. His developments sought to offer more than a housing unit: they were conceived as gathering places.

(Reprodução/Arte fora do Museu/Divulgação)

At Planalto, the program included retail on the ground floor and communal areas, in addition to spaces on the rooftop. The strategy also addressed a practical concern: creating a development that would appeal to the middle class, with a sophisticated appearance and features that would enhance the experience of living in the city center.

This combination helped explain the building's commercial success and consolidated a particular way of thinking about vertical housing in São Paulo.

The legacy of the Planalto Building

Edifício Planalto (Instagram/@splovers/Divulgação)

At 70 years old, the Planalto Building remains relevant precisely because it does not fit easily into a single definition. It engages with modernism but incorporates ornamentation; it is a residential building, yet it values communal spaces; it belongs to the São Paulo city center but stands out for its chromatic personality.

Listed by Conpresp (Municipal Council for the Preservation of the Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the City of São Paulo), the building is now part of the city's architectural heritage. Its importance goes beyond the preservation of a 1956 construction: Planalto helps tell the story of a São Paulo that was rapidly becoming vertical and of a professional who dared to propose an alternative to the dominant architecture.

The celebration of the building's seven decades, therefore, is also an opportunity to revisit Artacho Jurado and his unique way of imagining the city. In a constantly transformed landscape, Planalto continues to be a work that draws attention, and precisely for that reason, it helps remind us that architecture can also have color, personality and, above all, memory.

This text was developed with the assistance of CASACOR Publisher, an exclusive content agent developed by CASACOR's Technology team based on the knowledge base of casacor.com.br. The generated content was subsequently edited by Yeska Coelho.