The Rio Buildings Directory

Edifício Chopin

Copacabana's most storied address, beside the Copacabana Palace

1956

Copacabana Palace

The grande dame of the Copacabana beachfront, open since 1923

1923

Edifício Palácio Champs Élysées

Three blocks, three palace names, one Av. Atlântica address.

Early 1950s12 floors

1931 (construction begun 1928)9 floors

Edifício Lellis-São Paulo

The first residential building on Avenida Atlântica.

Edifício Veneza

Pre-war Copacabana beachfront, near the Palace.

1938

Atlântico Bait Copacabana

First new building on Av. Atlântica in about 40 years.

Edifício Master

276 studios a block from the beach, made famous by a 2002 film.

195712 floors

Edifício Itahy

Copacabana's best-known Art Deco apartment block, famous for the mermaid carved over its front door.

1932

Edifício Guahy

A 1932 Art Deco survivor with sharp-cut balconies that nearly fell to the wrecking ball in 1995.

1932

Copacabana

Edifício Guarujá

One of Copacabana's oldest apartment buildings, built in 1927 and heritage-listed since 1994.

1927

Copacabana

Edifício Richard

The famous 'Barata Ribeiro 200' — a 1954 mega-building with 500-plus apartments and a story big enough for the stage.

195412 floors

Rio Othon Palace

The 30-story slab at Posto 5 — the tallest hotel on the Copacabana beachfront since 1977.

197730 floors

Ipanema

11 All Ipanema buildings

Rua Nascimento Silva, 107

Where Tom Jobim composed the soundtrack of bossa nova

Edifício Garota de Ipanema

On the street where bossa nova was born.

195912 floors

Edifício Itacurussá

The green-tiled tower on Vieira Souto.

197013 floors

Edifício Cap Ferrat

One full-floor apartment on each floor, on Vieira Souto.

198117 floors

Edifício Henrique Dumont 85

One block off Ipanema beach, near the Vieira Souto corner.

1956

Edifício Palácio das Flores

A five-floor survivor on the Arpoador end of Vieira Souto.

19615 floors

Edifício JK

The only residential building on the Vieira Souto beachfront designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

1962

Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim

A 1910 beachfront mansion turned state cultural center — the last of its kind on Vieira Souto.

19103 floors

Edifício Vieira Souto 350

Álvaro Vital Brazil's 1961 glass box on the Ipanema beachfront.

1961

Edifício Atlântico Sul

A 1965 low-rise on Vieira Souto with only 15 apartments, some spanning over 1,400 m².

19655 floors

Edifício Miguel Angelo

An 11-story Vieira Souto tower of full-floor 433 m² apartments and a 935 m² penthouse.

1970s11 floors

Leblon

10 All Leblon buildings

Edifício Mira Mar

Right on Leblon's beachfront avenue.

197214 floors

Edifício Maison du Soleil

Two apartments per floor, between Posto 11 and 12.

197411 floors

Edifício Carême

Beachfront Leblon, 16 floors of full-plate Delfim Moreira.

197216 floors

Edifício Condado de Jares

One apartment per floor on Leblon's beach avenue.

19798 floors

Edifício São Gabriel

Beachfront Leblon at the Ipanema end of Delfim Moreira.

196813 floors

Selva de Pedra

Leblon's biggest complex — 40 buildings, 2,251 flats.

1970s

Edifício Juan Les Pins

Leblon's benchmark beachfront tower from the mid-1970s.

1974

Hotel Marina Palace (future Four Seasons)

Leblon's beachfront hotel tower, being reborn as Rio's first Four Seasons.

1980s~26 floors

Edifício Claude Debussy

One apartment per floor on the quieter end of Delfim Moreira.

198015 floors

Leblon

Edifício My Rose

An Ataulfo de Paiva classic with a place in Rio's cultural history.

Barra da Tijuca

6 All Barra da Tijuca buildings

Phased — early 2000s onwardUp to 24 (varies by block) floors

Condomínio Le Parc

A resort-scale gated compound in Barra.

Complexo Pedra de Itaúna

Eight condominiums on a protected Barra headland.

Condomínio Santa Mônica Jardins

Barra's best-known mansion condominium, a 370,000 m² gated enclave between Avenida das Américas and the Marapendi lagoon.

Ilha Pura (Vila dos Atletas)

The Rio 2016 Athletes' Village — 31 towers and 3,604 apartments — converted into Barra's largest planned residential district.

201617 floors

Condomínio Golden Green

Beachfront 1990s condominium on Avenida Lúcio Costa with a private golf course, helipad and Burle Marx landscaping.

1990s

Condomínio Novo Leblon

One of Barra's founding planned condominiums, laid out in 1976 with houses, lagoon-side towers and half a million square meters of green.

1976

Lagoa

6 All Lagoa buildings

Edifício Princesa da Lagoa

Lagoon-front Lagoa, with Cristo over the rooftops.

c. 198012 floors

Under development (announced; land sale pending late 2025)7 planned (6 residential + cobertura) floors

L'Unique Lagoa

Rio's priciest Lagoa launch yet.

Edifício Paço da Lagoa

Big family plates and a full leisure deck on the lagoon.

197611 floors

Obra do Berço

Oscar Niemeyer's first built work, a 1937 modernist landmark a block from the lagoon.

19374 floors

Lagoa 1000

Ruy Ohtake's wave-terraced apartment building at Epitácio Pessoa 1000.

1940 (club established on the island)

Lagoa

Clube Naval Piraquê

The Navy officers' club that occupies its own island in the middle of the lagoon.

Flamengo

6 All Flamengo buildings

1945 (begun 1940)11 floors

Edifício Biarritz

Art Deco out front, a hidden Burle Marx garden behind.

1931 (construction begun 1930)12 floors

Edifício Seabra

The 'Dakota Carioca' — Praia do Flamengo's heritage landmark.

Edifício Tabor e Loreto

A 1947 Art Deco pair on the Flamengo waterfront by the same architect who built the Biarritz.

1947

Hotel Novo Mundo

The 1950 hotel built next to the presidential palace, now being repurposed after seven decades of service.

195012 floors

Edifício Praia do Flamengo

The first building ever raised on the Flamengo waterfront — a 1925 Parisian block by Joseph Gire.

192510 floors

Castelinho do Flamengo

The 1918 turreted 'little castle' on the waterfront, now a municipal cultural center.

1918

Botafogo

5 All Botafogo buildings

Edifício Praia de Botafogo

The last home built on the bay for 53 years.

197114 floors

Palácio da Cidade

The former British embassy that became Rio's official city hall palace.

1947–1950

Casa de Rui Barbosa

An 1850 mansion on Rua São Clemente, Brazil's first public house-museum.

1850

Antigo Educandário Santa Teresa (Casa Daros)

An 1866 neoclassical landmark that went from orphanage to art museum to private school.

1866

19989 (two towers) floors

Centro Empresarial Mourisco

Botafogo's signature 1990s glass office complex on the bayfront, twin towers crowned with gilded globes.

Centro

5 All Centro buildings

Edifício A Noite

Latin America's first skyscraper, standing over Praça Mauá since 1929.

192922 floors

Palácio Gustavo Capanema

The building that put Brazilian modernism on the world map.

1936–1945

Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro

Rio's opera house since 1909, modeled on the Paris Opera.

1909

1894 (interiors 1912–1918)

Confeitaria Colombo

An 1894 tearoom whose Belgian-mirror salon is a city monument in its own right.

Paço Imperial

The 1743 governors' palace where colony, kingdom and empire were run.

1743

Leme

4 All Leme buildings

Landmark Leme

Edifício Macedo (Clarice Lispector's building)

Where Clarice Lispector wrote her final novels

Landmark Leme

Edifício Mare Nostrum

Big beachfront plates on Leme's quiet end of the Atlântica.

1968~12 floors

Landmark Leme

Hilton Copacabana (ex-Hotel Méridien)

Leme's black monolith — the tallest tower on the beach, famous for its New Year's Eve fireworks waterfall.

197539 floors

Leme

Windsor Leme (ex-Leme Palace Hotel)

Leme's original beachfront grand hotel, open on Avenida Atlântica since 1964.

196417 floors

Urca

4 All Urca buildings

Carmen Miranda's House, Urca

The last Brazilian home of the "Brazilian Bombshell"

Edifício Urca

Bayfront Urca, at the foot of Pão de Açúcar.

195410 floors

Cassino da Urca

The 1920s waterfront palace that was Brazil's most famous casino, now a design school.

early 1920s

1872–1890 (completed 1937–1944)

Instituto Benjamin Constant

A monumental neoclassical complex on Avenida Pasteur, home of Brazil's national school for the blind.

São Conrado

4 All São Conrado buildings

Condomínio Praia Guinle

Three oceanfront towers named for Brazilian artists.

198515 floors

Rive Droite

Two apartments per floor on São Conrado's beach avenue.

199815 floors

Hotel Nacional

Niemeyer's cylindrical glass tower on São Conrado beach, reborn in 2016.

197234 floors

Casa das Canoas

The curved glass house Oscar Niemeyer built for himself in the forest above São Conrado.

19532 floors

≈ 1965 (original) · current residential conversion8 floors

Jardim Botânico

4 All Jardim Botânico buildings

Landmark Jardim Botânico

Residencial Edifício Rede Globo

The old Rede Globo HQ, turned into Jardim Botânico apartments.

Landmark Jardim Botânico

Edifício Antônio Ceppas

An award-winning 1940s modernist apartment building with Burle Marx panels.

1946

1927-1929 (current mansion)

Landmark Jardim Botânico

Palacete do Parque Lage

The 1920s mansion around a courtyard pool, now Rio's visual arts school.

Jardim Botânico

Solar da Imperatriz

A colonial-era manor in the Horto, now the Botanical Garden's graduate school.

c. 1750

Laranjeiras

4 All Laranjeiras buildings

1945 (construction begun 1939; WWII delay)15 floors

Edifício Águas Férreas

Neoclassical Laranjeiras at the edge of Cosme Velho.

Nova Cintra 1948 · Bristol 1950 · Caledônia 1952

Conjunto Residencial do Parque Guinle

Three Lúcio Costa blocks set inside a Burle Marx park.

Palácio Guanabara

Princess Isabel's former palace, today the seat of the Rio de Janeiro state government.

1853

Palácio Laranjeiras

The Guinle family's 1913 French palace inside Parque Guinle, now the governor's official residence.

1913

Gávea

4 All Gávea buildings

Condomínio Parque da Gávea

Three towers on Gávea's main square, facing the Jockey.

1971

Instituto Moreira Salles (Casa Walther Moreira Salles)

A banker's modernist house turned one of Rio's best cultural centers.

1951

Conjunto Residencial Marquês de São Vicente (Minhocão da Gávea)

Affonso Reidy's curved modernist housing block above the Gávea tunnel.

1952

Solar Grandjean de Montigny

An 1820s neoclassical solar on the PUC-Rio campus.

c. 1823

19th century (restored 1997)

Santa Teresa

3 All Santa Teresa buildings

Landmark Santa Teresa

Parque das Ruínas (Palacete Murtinho Nobre)

The shell of a salon-society mansion, rebuilt in glass and steel as a public viewpoint.

Landmark Santa Teresa

Museu da Chácara do Céu

Castro Maya's modernist hilltop house, kept as he left it — art collection included.

1957

Santa Teresa

Hotel Santa Teresa (Casarão MGallery)

An 1850s coffee-farm mansion working today as one of Brazil's best-rated hotels.

c. 1850

Tijuca

3 All Tijuca buildings

Tijuca

Cine Carioca

The art deco movie palace of Praça Saens Peña.

1941

Tijuca

Colégio Militar do Rio de Janeiro (Casa de Thomaz Coelho)

An imperial-era military school on the old Conde de Bonfim estate.

1889 (school founding)

1915 (club founded); sede social 1931

Tijuca

Tijuca Tênis Clube

The neighborhood's social club since 1915, built around a casarão on Conde de Bonfim.

Arpoador

3 All Arpoador buildings

Landmark Arpoador

Hotel Arpoador

The 1974 Arpoador Inn, rebuilt by Bernardes Arquitetura and reopened in 2019 with no fence between lobby and sand.

1974

Arpoador

Galeria River

The 1966 commercial gallery that became the home base of Brazilian surf culture.

1966

2021 (launch)9 + duplex penthouses floors

Arpoador

On The Sea Arpoador

Cyrela's 2021 launch — the first new residential development in Arpoador in a decade.

Joá

2 All Joá buildings

Landmark Joá

Condomínio Costa Brava

A Sérgio Bernardes condominium on the Joá cliffs.

1960

Joá

La Suite by Dussol

A 1968 cliff mansion in Joá turned into a seven-suite boutique hotel.

1968

Recreio dos Bandeirantes

2 All Recreio dos Bandeirantes buildings

Recreio dos Bandeirantes

Jardins Barra Bonita

Recreio's gated 1990s residential pocket — roughly twenty condominiums sharing a square, an association and a family routine.

1990s

Recreio dos Bandeirantes

Condomínio Riviera del Sol

A 254,000 m² gated house condominium on the green edge of Recreio, known for big lots and celebrity neighbors.

Niterói

2 All Niterói buildings

Landmark Niterói

Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC)

Oscar Niemeyer's 1996 saucer on the Boa Viagem headland — the building that put Niterói on the architectural map.

1996

Niterói

Solar do Jambeiro

An 1872 Portuguese merchant's mansion in Ingá, tiled floor to roof in Porto azulejos and IPHAN-listed since 1974.

1872

Humaitá

2 All Humaitá buildings

Landmark Humaitá

Cobal do Humaitá

A 1971 market hall on a former tram garage, now the neighborhood's food and nightlife hub.

1971

Landmark Humaitá

Parque Maria Cândida Pareto

Sérgio Bernardes's 1978 hillside condominium of 60 stacked houses, often mistaken for a favela by design.

1978

Catete

2 All Catete buildings

Landmark Catete

Palácio do Catete

Brazil's presidential palace from 1897 to 1960, now the Museu da República.

1867

Catete

Imperial Hotel

An 1896 neoclassical block on Rua do Catete with an IPHAN-protected facade, still running as a hotel.

1896

Glória

2 All Glória buildings

Landmark Glória

Hotel Glória

Brazil's first five-star hotel, opened in 1922 and now reborn as a residential building.

1922

Landmark Glória

Edifício Manchete

Oscar Niemeyer's 1968 media palace on Rua do Russel, with gardens by Burle Marx.

196812 floors

Cosme Velho

2 All Cosme Velho buildings

Landmark Cosme Velho

Largo do Boticário

A heritage-listed square of colorful neocolonial houses backing onto the Tijuca Forest.

1920s (current ensemble)

Landmark Cosme Velho

Estação do Trem do Corcovado

The 1884 cog-railway station that anchors Cosme Velho — Brazil's first tourist railway, heritage-listed with its entire line.

1884

Vidigal

2 All Vidigal buildings

Landmark Vidigal

Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort

Rio's only hotel built directly on the sand, at the foot of Vidigal.

197426 floors

Vidigal

Mirante do Arvrão

A design hotel and cultural hub at the top of Vidigal.

Project 1947; built across the late 1940s–1950s

São Cristóvão

1

Landmark São Cristóvão

Conjunto Residencial Prefeito Mendes de Moraes (Pedregulho)

Reidy's 260m serpentine block on pilotis — a modernist landmark.

1855 (original house); school since 1875

Vila Isabel

1 All Vila Isabel buildings

Vila Isabel

Colégio Estadual João Alfredo

An imperial school opened by Dom Pedro II on the Boulevard 28 de Setembro.