List of tallest buildings in São Paulo

This is a list of skyscrapers in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, the American continent, and the Western and Southern Hemispheres. Within the city, there are nearly ten thousand tall buildings (over 35 metres (115 ft) or consisting of 12 floors), of which 152 are buildings above 100 metres (339 ft) and 18 are skyscrapers above 150 metres (490 ft).^[1] It is the fourth city with the largest number of buildings and one of the cities with the most skyscrapers in the world.^[2][3][4] During the 20th century, São Paulo played a prominent role in the country's civil construction (remaining to this day), with many of its new buildings having ranked first among the tallest skyscrapers in the country and Latin America, and represented a milestone in modern Brazilian architecture, with many of its buildings protected by the Historical Heritage and listed by CONPRESP (Municipal Council for the Preservation of the Historical Heritage of São Paulo) due to their "importance, historical, social and urbanistic value".^[5]

The history of verticalization in São Paulo began in the 1920s, with the construction of the Sampaio Moreira Building in 1924, measuring 50 meters in height and 12 floors, a novelty for the time. Also that year, construction began on the Martinelli Building (105 meters), which was inaugurated unfinished in 1929, in order to compete with the A Noite Building (84 meters) in Rio de Janeiro and receive the title of tallest building in the country and Latin America, which continued until the construction of the Kavanagh Building (120 meters) in Buenos Aires in 1936. The title of tallest skyscraper in Latin America returned to São Paulo with the inauguration of the Altino Arantes Building (161 meters in height and 35 floors), built in 1947 and the largest reinforced concrete building in the world and the tallest building on the planet outside the United States.^[6]

In 1960, construction began on the Mirante do Vale, which was completed in 1966. At 170 meters high and with 51 floors, it became the tallest building in the city and stood out for having been the tallest in Brazil for 48 years until 2014 (being the building that remained in that position for the longest time). Also in 1966, the Edifício Copan (115 meters) was inaugurated, a symbol of the city and of modern Brazilian architecture, since it did not follow the straight pattern of the other neighboring buildings and was designed with sinuous curves by Oscar Niemeyer. Numerous new skyscrapers were built in that decade, such as the Edifício Itália (165 meters), and in the years that followed; however, due to the fires that occurred in the Andraus and Joelma buildings in the 1970s, the height limit for buildings was inhibited and the city did not have any new skyscrapers taller than 160 meters for about four decades. São Paulo has had several skyscraper projects that would have been the tallest in the world if they had been completed, such as the Maharishi São Paulo Tower (510 meters), which would surpass the Petronas Towers; the Landmark Tower (695 meters) and the Órbita Residence (1.1 kilometers). In 2021, the Figueira Altos do Tatuapé (168 meters and 50 floors) was inaugurated, the taller residential building and the fourth-tallest building in the city. Also in March of the same year, the Platina 220 took the top spot as the tallest building in São Paulo when it reached its maximum height of 172 meters (more than fifty years after the completion of the Mirante do Vale), a title that lasted until May 2025, when the corporate tower of the Alto das Nações complex; still under construction, it reached its final 219 meters, and also became the tallest multipurpose corporate tower in Brazil. New buildings are under construction, such as Parque Global (composed of five residential towers, one of which will be 173 meters high) and the residential buildings Cyrela Pininfarina Rebouças (210 meters) and Vista Cyrela Furnished By Armani/Casa (206 meters).^[7][8][9]

The city's skyline has often been listed as one of the most impressive, relevant and well-known in the world, with a large number of high-end, class A, AA and AAA (triple A) and sustainable buildings^[10] located in regions such as Avenida Paulista, Avenida Faria Lima, Brooklin, Berrini, Chucri Zaidan,^[11] Itaim Bibi, Centro and Pinheiros, such as Cidade Matarazzo (+100 meters), RochaVerá Plaza Torre C (134 meters), Faria Lima Plaza (126 meters), Torre Matarazzo (125 meters), among many others. According to the German company Emporis, in a survey carried out every two years on the most impressive skylines in the world, São Paulo ranked fifth in 2011;^[12] seventh in 2013;^[13] in 2015, ninth;^[14] the following year, it was again included in the same publication of the company,^[15] and is currently among the top ten.^[3]