Edifício Richard — Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

About the building

The Richard occupies the corner of Rua Barata Ribeiro and Praça Cardeal Arcoverde, steps from the metro station of the same name. Inaugurated in 1954 and marketed at the time as a 'modern architectural ensemble', it is one of Copacabana's true mega-buildings: twelve floors, six elevators and more than 500 apartments — around 45 units per floor at its densest.

Most units are compact studios and one-bedrooms, which keeps the building popular with first-time buyers, investors and short-stay operators. Today it runs with 24-hour reception and camera monitoring, and its location — directly on top of the metro, eight minutes from the sand — is hard to argue with.

Address: Rua Barata Ribeiro 194 (formerly 200), Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

History

The Richard was born from the 1950s rush to pack as many apartments as possible onto Copacabana's blocks. Its original street number, Barata Ribeiro 200, became so notorious that cariocas simply called it 'o duzentão'. In the early 1970s the playwright Paulo Pontes wrote a play drawn from the dramas of its residents; after the building's condo association objected, it was retitled 'Um Edifício Chamado 200' (A Building Called 200). The address was later officially changed to number 194.

Through the 1970s–90s the building had a chaotic reputation, and it became a case study in the debate over high-density micro-apartments — the kind of construction Governor Carlos Lacerda banned in 1960. Stricter management since the 2000s turned the page: many units have been renovated, and the building is now better known as a curiosity of Copacabana history than as a problem.