Hotel Nacional — São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro

About the building

The Hotel Nacional is the 34-story cylindrical glass tower that defines the São Conrado skyline, at the meeting of Avenida Niemeyer and Avenida Aquarela do Brasil, directly across from the beach. Oscar Niemeyer designed the tower; Roberto Burle Marx designed the gardens. It is the largest single structure in the neighborhood and visible from the Niemeyer corniche all the way from Leblon.

The hotel runs around 417 apartments over a base of convention halls, pools and gardens. For anyone considering São Conrado, the Nacional matters as infrastructure as much as landmark: it concentrates the neighborhood's hotel, events and dining activity on one site between the Fashion Mall and the beach.

Address: Av. Niemeyer 769, São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro

History

Built for hotelier José Tjurs and opened in 1972, the Nacional was for two decades one of Rio's great hotels, hosting international acts and the Free Jazz Festival. It closed in 1995 after the operating company failed, and the tower stood famously empty for twenty years — a glass cylinder shuttered on the beach.

The building was landmarked by the city in 1998. After a court-ordered auction it was restored and reopened on 15 December 2016, initially flagged as Gran Meliá Nacional; since 2019 it has operated again under its original name, Hotel Nacional Rio de Janeiro.