Wikipedia (
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"The auditorium completes the group of buildings in Ibirapuera park, as designed originally by the architect in the 1950s. Compared to the original proposal it is lacking only the access square that would separate it from the Oca, which would serve as the main entrance to the park.
At the 2008 Latin Grammy Awards the Brazilian Field awards were presented at the Ibirapuera Auditorium. In December of the same year, the Ibirapuera Auditorium was the host of the final fashion show of America's Next Top Model, Cycle 12."
On 5/26/2011, Wallpaper Magazine (
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"Oscar bravo
ARCHITECTURE
São Paulo’s paparazzi were out in force at the opening of Oscar Niemeyer’s new auditorium in Ibirapuera Park this autumn. Bulbs popped furiously as Lenny Kravitz lookalikes and blondes with Botoxed brows mingled with the mayor, his entourage and a host of black-clad architects at the gala do to celebrate the completion of Niemeyer’s latest building, which has been 50 years in the making.
The 800-seat concert hall, which looks like a white concrete wedge with an undulating red tongue poking out of its front, closes the final chapter of the masterplan for Ibirapuera Park, dreamt up by the 97-year-old Niemeyer and the late Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx in 1955.
Lack of funds had prevented the concert hall’s construction until now, and Niemeyer, on hearing that it would finally be built, is said to have scribbled across a sketch of the building: ‘After so many years, the auditorium will be built and the entrance to Ibirapuera finally finished as it should have been.’
Eager for his hall ‘to be used for both inside and outdoor concerts’, Niemeyer created a stage with a back wall that opens, offering audiences inside a verdant backdrop of the park, while allowing those outside to watch concerts from the grass. Every Sunday morning, there will be a free concert for people in the park.
The exterior may be hard-edged and brutal, but inside is all opulence; a grand staircase curls like an ampersand up to a plush auditorium with regal red carpets, while in the basement is a VIP room, a government-funded music school, a café and dressing rooms.
Having finally found its resting place, the auditorium rubs shoulders with other Niemeyer buildings in the park, among them the Museu de Arte Moderna, the Bienial building, which hosts São Paulo Fashion Week, and the flying saucer-shaped observatory. As well as being the last to be built, the concert hall is also the most controversial. Environmentalists complain that what São Paulo needs most is trees, not concrete, in its suffocating city centre, and the park should be there to provide stressed out Paulistanos with some rare green space. Niemeyer, too, had ecological issues. He wanted to replace an ugly concrete walkway between the Observatory and the concert hall with a garden, but was prevented from doing so by the city council. He didn’t show up for the inauguration.
Then there was the swirling red sculpture in the foyer, designed by Tomie Ohtake, mother of famed Brazilian architect Ruy Ohtake. Why have it, tut-tutted many a guest; what was the point, when Niemeyer’s sweeping staircase was dramatic enough?
Yet, despite the criticism, the auditorium has already lined up a host of star Brazilian and international acts; here’s betting that, in Brazil of all places, music comes before politics."