Carlos M Teixeira sao paulo skyscraper 21

13 . Meantimc engmeers and interna kep< on with an msane confidence, the tirdess businessman Mario Garnero (Brasilmvest Group) got ncw loons via direct contacts with the public banks. Ali dcfayed salaries were paid off. Ali Ihc precanousness and improvisation on the last floors were substituted by metal ptllars. which followed the mitial structural logie o4 the facade. And 143 new floors •• now accordmg to the John Hancock s buildmg constructton system -were erected without any unusoal occurrences. overlaytng two structural Systems.

14. Over than 40 floors were bu»lt with only a single work-related accident and a fatal fali (from the 217" floof). The wortcers contmued on włth the buOdmg intensively and constantly. durmg holidays, weekends. Sundays. from dawn to dusk. always.

15. The venture's cash flow no longer seems to show strain: the demand for apartments and offKes has become greater than therr suppty. mereasmg pnees per sguare fooc. skyrocketing the premiom in the real State market, and augmenting the anx*ety for the end of the construction.

16. 33 morę floors. 17. 12 morę floors.

18. 81 morę floors. Ho acodents. no disagreements no problems.

19.23 morę floors. Everythmg under control. At the time. not Just construction workers bot engineers. archite<ts and brokers. everyday prooder of the gigantic monument underneath their feet, have atso de<«3ed to work on Saturdays and Sundays. regardless of overtime payment. They started to compkte the last details of the towers' first 100 floors. promptly occupred by the first buyers. At the maugural ceremony, an unexpectcd reaction: the total support from the population, compliments from the media, and articłes in newspapers that enthusiastically desenbed the mmture of programs and shapes of the bullding that had been implanted (only up to the 108th floor) accordmg with the origmal project of the Mahanshi guru.

20. 78 morę floors. Current days. The buildmg keeps growing at a diMymg speed. at a ratę of 20 floors a month. The image of the buildmg. previously crrtKued by Brazilian ar<hitects (^%that disptaced architecture that does not add much our solid, modermst tradittons*). has become a darmg national symbol. floors from i to 209 have already been occupied and there has been a long list of buyers for the spaces that will be avaiiaWe through the next 100 floors - alt of them sold long ago and resold at a premium severai nmes over. with almost the same liquid«ty of paper currency.

A 1.6y means of a real State fund. Mahanshi Tower's square foot begms to be negooated at Sio Paulo Stock €xchange. an unprecedent fact in history of 6r«2H'S real State market, ftumors that the Tower is approchmg its maximum hesght make the shares' pnee go up; gossips that the strocture is workmg far beyond its maumum aiiowed performance re-duce the papers to simbohc numbers; news about skyrocketing assalts. murderes and kidnappings in the rest of the city reraise the vaiue of the fund s Capital, and so on.

AA. In pnn<iple a cacophony of buildmgs ovtr buiidings. nowr the spaces of the tower are extremefy <omplex: provis*onal shacks fight for room withmodernist fantasies. radecalfor malisms trespass with mcredibly agressiveness the x-shaped facade. and structural expenmentat*ons make it possible unusual occupations of the humungus voids mbetween the four towers. Rooftops become terraces that become bndges that become houses that become buildmgs that become something else. and so on.

A 3. 55 morę floors. Now every single mhabłtant of Sao Paulo struggles for a place »n the tower; whereas the entire city starts to become empty. Suburbs. downtown areas. houses. schools. buiidings. hosprtals. mails - m summary all the burfding* in every boroogh are bemg abandoned.

A^c4. And then the Tower begms - in an amanng hora/ontal growth at the base Of the colossus - to hołd the mam downtown buiidings. The SAo 8ento Monastery. the Anhangabau valiey. the Copam Bu kling, the Martinem Bldg.. the Banespa Bldg. -in short. nearly no of the ot/s s»mbol is saved. not much bemg left to celebrate the 4S0* anmversary of the city...

A D. Somebody remember the total floors (how many there are so far>) has ovtrrun the maximum number per mitted by the foundations. But no one cares. and everyone keeps on buildmg. buymg. and mov*ng to the Tower.