The Copan was one of the great projects for São Paulo presented by Oscar Niemeyer in 1951, commissioned for the city's Fourth Centennial (which would be celebrated in 1954). The idea was inspired by New York's Rockefeller Center, a condominium that combined a large shopping and entertainment center with residences. [7] The advertising campaign that launched the venture anticipated a "rain of dollars for the country", coming from tourism income, but in a matter of months the federal government extrajudicially liquidated the Banco Nacional Imobiliário (BNI), responsible for the transmission of investments, causing Pan Am, the main financier, to lose interest. [7] The work was put on hold until 1957, when Bradesco took charge of the project.[7].
Niemeyer includes the work in his autobiography, despite his dissatisfaction with Copan, whose execution he handed over to Carlos Lemos "Carlos Lemos (architect)")[12] when he saw the residential building built barely up to the third floor during the celebrations for the fourth centenary, and also because he was already on his way to Brasilia. The Copan building was going to be the image of "modern São Paulo" during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. However, the architect became disinterested in the work when his initial ideas did not materialize and ended up delegating the development of the execution project to a third party.
The chosen project was commissioned by the Companhia Pan-Americana de Hotéis e Turismo, created on the occasion of the Fourth Centennial of the city of São Paulo - hence the acronym of the building's name: "COPAN".[13] The project envisaged an even larger neighboring hotel, a slab that connected both buildings and supported a restaurant, as well as a swimming pool, shopping gallery, hanging gardens and underground garages. Work was thwarted by the bankruptcy of BNI, and the completion of the residential building took fifteen years.[12] The much smaller building that would have housed the hotel is now the headquarters of a branch of Bradesco, which absorbed BNI. Almost everything was built except for the hotel and the theater. Although the building is completely outside its original conception, and only the exterior form can be attributed to Niemeyer, it remains a landmark of utmost importance for the reading of the city, persisting as one of the symbols of urban modernity in the New Center.
With the decline of the city center in the 1970s, the building fell into decay and for many years its image was associated with a conflictive environment and it came to be considered a vertical tenement.[14] Starting in the 1990s, with the beginning of the revitalization of the Center, COPAN attracted the middle class, in search of quality homes, well located and with lower prices.[15] In the 1980s, the contrast between the blocks was still visible, as Block D had three-bedroom flats with high-income residents, while Block B, considered the poorest part of the building, had 448 small flats and 192 combined bedroom and living room flats. [7] In the previous two decades, it would have been this block that gave the building a bad name, due to robberies, fights, shouting and police raids.[7] At that time it was in the building where journalist Nélson Townes sought inspiration for his column "Histórias da Boca", published by the newspaper Notícias Populares.[7] This reputation began to change in 1986, when the building began to be managed by the residents themselves, instead of by a real estate agency, which allowed some pressure to be exerted on the owners so that they did not rent their properties to people "of dubious behavior".[7] Currently, people from various social classes and occupations live together in Copan: manicurists, engineers, advertising executives, journalists, stylists, architects, etc.
The building has inspired writers, filmmakers, photographers and other artists from around the world. In 1994, Brazilian writer Regina Rheda") published a book of short stories titled Arca sem Noé - Histórias do Edifício Copan, which won the Jabuti Prize the following year. The story The Bad Neighbor, included in the book, was awarded the Maison de l'Amérique Latine prize in 1994. Arca sem Noé - Histórias do Edifício Copan is also published in English as Stories From the Copan Building, in the volume First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix, published by the University of Texas Press.[16].
In 2010, the Copan intended to become the first building in São Paulo with advertising on its façade after the approval of the Clean City Law), which provided for the use of advertising in "urban, environmental and landscape improvements". protective.[11] The liquidator alleged that the remodeling works, budgeted at 23 million reais, had not been approved in three condominium assemblies.[11] For this reason, he questioned the residents who said that the façade was "in ruins": "[The residents] cannot complain. Nobody agreed with the remodeling"[11].
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, in 2016, several reports were made, including a GloboNews documentary, directed by director and screenwriter Cristina Aragão, titled "Copan 60 Hours", which analyzed how the building interferes in the lives of its residents on a daily basis and their relationship with it. [5].