SÃO PAULO: PINHEIROS & TIETÊ

THE MOVEMENTS OF THE MARGINAL RIVERS-AVENUES SYSTEM

Peter Ribon Monteiro

Architect by Federal University of Espírito Santo (Vitória)

Master in Urban Environmental Structures by University of São Paulo (São Paulo)

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ABSTRACT

The landscape formed by the big rivers of São Paulo, Tietê and Pinheiros, their Marginal1

Avenues and the adjacent buildings present a great importance for the comprehension of the identity

of the largest town of Brazil, by considering its physical and structural aspect, its symbolic strength

and its presence as a scenery of the urban social life of lots of people that pass through it daily.

Intrinsically linked to the city (natural paths forward the unknown country during the Colonial

Period), the rivers received several hydraulic works that, begun in the end of the 19th century,

transformed significantly its shape. While São Paulo spread itself toward all direction and included

them inside its urban structure, these one suffered a visible process of pollution that, besides the

natural floods (not yet totally controlled nowadays) and the physical barriers created by the

construction of the express avenues, provoked the disintegration between the city and the rivers.

By considering this landscape as a system of urban visual communication, we describe how

this distinct morphology was designed since the foundation of the city, and how this process reveals

which we identify as six specific movements: contemplation, recreation, idealization, canalization,

circulation and contamination. Then, by the key-images created by these ‘movements’, we suggest

some reflections about the significance of the valorization of this landscape to the metropolis and its

inhabitants as well as to contribute to the recent movement of environmental recuperation of this

system.

Keywords: São Paulo (city), urban form, urban rivers, environmental perception, semiotic

1 The Marginal Avenues received this name for having occupied the original banks (margens) of the rivers.

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INITIALS

Since the end of the 19th century the urban structure of São Paulo begins to grow rapidly until

the simple village colonial becomes in the end of the 20th the biggest and most important city of

South America. In this context the two big rivers that cross its physical territory - Tietê and its

tributary Pinheiros - then away from the urban core of the ‘paulista’2 capital have become to be

definitely inserted into the urban design of the city. The process of channeling of the rivers and the

constructions of the marginal avenues3 - completed in the 1960s - change sensitively the rivers path,

nowadays associated mainly with the flow of the wheel-traffic. In spite of their integration into the

metropolis design, Pinheiros and Tietê curiously “depart” from the city since many factors will

contribute to the rise of the negative image of the rivers as the lack of the residential and industrial

sewage treatment, the ending of leisure areas and the spoliation of the public soil in the process of

construction of the avenues4, the lack of suitable integration between the existing neighborhoods

and the new areas generated by the new path of the rivers and the frequent floods that still reach the

plains. For more understanding of the importance of the rivers Pinheiros and Tietê - and the

expressways connect to them - in the city of São Paulo, we describe the main projects and plans

developed, identifying specific movements of transformation of this landscape.

2 Paulista is the term related to the inhabitants of the state of São Paulo while paulistano refers to the inhabitant of the city of São Paulo, capital of the state. 3 Since the beginning the expressways by the canals of the rivers Pinheiros and Tietê received the popular name of “marginal avenues” once they are situated in their “margin” (riverbanks). Officially the name of the marginal Pinheiros is United Nations Avenue while the marginal Tietê is called of different names like Ambassador Macedo Soares Avenue, Assis Chateaubriand Avenue or Rogério Alves de Toledo Avenue, depending on its part. 4 The issue of the vacant lands along the riverbanks of the rivers Pinheiros and Tietê is well treate by Saide Kahtouni on her study about the changes of the floodplains. Cf. KAHTOUNI, 2004-

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First Movement: From 16th to 19th Century

Fig. 1. Region of Santos (coast) and village of São Paulo (plateau), 16th century

The great majority of the former cities in Brazil were located along the coastline and upon

special places where protection and water supply were prerequisite5. In spite of not being by the sea,

Sao Paulo stood out as the first village on the Atlantic Plateau to prosper, especially due to its

implantation over a 800 meter high6 plateau located between the river Tamanduateí and its affluent

stream Anhangabaú. Founded in 1554, that one that would be the biggest city in South America was

also close to the large floodplains of the rivers Tietê and Pinheiros7 - as the Tamanduateí, tributary

of the first one -, that permitted the connection between Sao Paulo and the villages also located by

5 Cf. MARX, 1991; PETRONE, 1995; PRADO JR., 1998. 6 Ab’Saber points the originality of the urban settlement of the village São Paulo, at “um planalto colinoso de ‘serra acima’ nas cabeceiras de rios que dão costas ao mar”. Cf. AB’SABER, 1958, p. 14. 7 The floodplains are large lowlands with a little small variation of height (719-723m) formed by holocenic alluvions of the main rivers that cross the basin of de São Paulo. While the plain of the river Tietê extends over 25 km in length and 1,5 to 2,5 km in width from the neighborhood of Penha to the city of Osasco, the plain of the Pinheiros extends over 20 km in length and 1 to 1,5 km in width from the neighborhood of Santo Amaro until the Tietê. As for the river Tamanduateí, the only one that can be compared to the others in dimension, it flows into the Tietê and runs almost parallel to the Pinheiros from the city of São Caetano until the neighborhood of Pari over 19 km in length and 200 to 400 meters in width. Besides these plains the other basic components of the physical-geographic territory of São Paulo are: the central spur of the paulistan hills; the high hills of the edge of the central spur; the soft levels and ramps of the central spur (secondary spurs); the tabular hills of the intermediate principal level; the low terrace hills and the fluvial terraces of the relatively lean lowlands. Cf. AB’SABER, op. cit.

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the rivers (Pinheiros, Sao Miguel Paulista, Freguesia do Ó, Santana) that would become in the

future its neighborhoods. If these floodplains could difficult the urban growing for a while, they

already showed the importance of the image of ways crossing that would be consolidated in Sao

Paulo after the Indepence Day (1822), when the city, already considered as the capital of the

province, begins to receive most of the profits generated by the coffee culture, then the most

important Brazilian exportation product8.

Fig. 2. Topographic map of the metropolitan region of São Paulo

Then some urban improvements take place, as the first rectification of the river Tamanduateí in

1849. In spite of its importance, São Paulo kept being a modest place in the middle of the 19th

century, had 20 thousand inhabitants, still more densely located on the historical plateau known as

“triangle”, where ecclesiastic buildings stood out amid the residential houses, as a typical colonial

Brazilian village.

8 In 1860 the port of Santos was already the most important coffee exportation. The coffee entered the country by the North until reaches good earth in the state of Rio de Janeiro and afterwards enters the state of São Paulo and the fertile soil known as ‘purple earth’, distant from the capital. Howevr, after the connection between these fertile areas and the port by the railways, the city of São Paulo, situated in a strategic zone, begins to receive lots of improvements. Cf. BUENO, 2004.

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Fig. 3. View of São Paulo in the 19th century

Second Movement: Amid-Centuries 19th and 20th

In the end of the 19th century, the influence of several facts - like the growth of the coffee

production, the deployment of the railways connecting Sao Paulo to the seaport and the country 9,

the proclamation of the Republic (1889) and a massive European inmigration10 - provoke

significant changes in the city and its urban landscape11. While the population grows very fast and

reaches the sum of 240.000 in the beginning of the 20th century, more space is required to live.

Then the little farms (know as ‘chácaras’) surrounding the urban core begin to be divide into new

allotments and while the best places (drier and higher) are chosen by the aristocracy to inhabit, the

floodplains of the rivers Tietê and Tamanduateí - on which the industries and railways were

installed - become the worker class neighborhoods. However, without an appropriate urban plan

9 In 1867 the Santos-Jundiaí Railway is inaugurated while in 1875 the state of Sao Paulo receives the São Paulo-Sorocoba Raiwlay and in 1877, connecting the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio, the Central of Brazil.The railways implemented in the middle of the 19th century for the flow of the coffee production will structure the regional circulation system and help to put the state of São Paulo on the first level of the Brazilian economy. At the same time lots of immigrants come to work at the cofee crops in the country and also in the city as liberal professionals. 10 Entre 1890 e 1900, mais da metade da população já era composta por imigrantes, sobretudo de italianos e, nas fábricas recém-criadas, 90% dos operários eram europeus. Cf. REIS, 2004. 11 João Teodoro Xavier (1872-1875), implemented the public gas lighting and the tram transport with animal traction, opened new streets, enlarged old ones, created gardens and public green areas - as a garden at the riverbank of the Tamanduateí - and was the protagonist of the first economic development in the capital. Cf. CAMPOS, 2004; MORSE,

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these places are conducive to the spread of infectious diseases, which demands more than ever the

sanitation works of the river plains12. At the same time, several sportclubs are installed on the

riverbanks and regattas become frequent events on the Tietê13. While a little island close to the

Grande Bridge was designated for recreation.

Fig. 4 São Paulo in the middle of the 19th century

1970. 12 In 1866, the Presidente of the province (former name of state) João Alfredo de Oliveira had already showed the necessity of occupying floodplains of the Tamanduateí and the Tietê with urban uses. Cf. BONILHA, 2002. 13 Between the decades of 18890 and 1910 the river Tietê received the sport clubs Esperia, Sao Paulo, Tietê and Corinthians. In the decade of 1920 the Germânia Club (nowadays the Pinheiros Club) was installed by the river Pinheiros.

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The Plan of the State Commission of Sanitation

In 1894 the big rivers receive their first significant project, coordinated by the engineer

Pereira Ferraz, chief of the Commission of Sanitation of the State of São Paulo14, municipal body

created in 1892 to aim to avoid the floods on the Plain of Carmo (river Tamanduateí) and accelerate

the course of the Tietê15. By following the process of rectification and canalization of the

Tamanduateí (1897-1916), the Tietê receives its first works (Osasco, Anastácio and Inhaúma),

when a canal of navigation smaller than the floodplain (50 meters) are built in three different areas

(Osasco, Anastácio and Inhaúma).

Fig. 5. Plan of canalization of the Tietê, State Comission of Sanitation

14 In 1887 the firs studies are presented and became the basis for the new plan of 1894. Cf. LEME, 1999. 15 Several studies of hydrology and geotechnical were elaborated for that, as well as the proposal of channeling of the rivers Tamanduateí that then received straight the sewage of the city.

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Third Movement: Beginning of the 20th (1900-1930)

The plans that will radically change the Pinheiros and Tietê are idealized during the first

decades of the 20th century. In 1920 Sao Paulo had about 580 thousand inhabitants16 and its

colonial architecture had already been almost completely substituted by the eclectic one17, style that

was also present on the valleys by the urban core then transformed into public areas: Anhangabaú

Park - over the former stream that was canalized below the soil level - and Dom Pedro II Park - part

of the floodplain of the Tamanduateí called Várzea do Carmo. During the first decades of the 20th

century the plans which are define the most important transformation of the big rivers in São Paulo

are idealized. And while the public government modifies the course of the river Tietê, its basin is

changed by the Light Company - one of the foreign companies that begin to deeply act on the urban

services in São Paulo - and while the river Guarapiranga - tributary of the river PInheiros, the most

important tributary of the Tietê - on the south of the village, is dammed and becomes into a

reservoir with the same name during 1906 and 1907, the river Grande suffers the same and becomes

the Reservoir Billings in 192718.

The plans of de Pacheco Silva, Fonseca Rodrigues and Ulhôa Cintra

During the 1910s and 1920s some plans were idealized by engineers from the City Hall and the

State Government to canalize and rectify the rest of the river Tietê, by following the kind of works

made in the river Tamanduateí. Among them, there were the General Plan of Improvements for the

Tietê19 (1913), by Pacheco e Silva, that showed for the first time the proposal of the construction of

the marginal avenues; the plan by Fonseca Rodriges (1922), that was based on the studies of the

already extinct Comission of Sanitation and that highlighted the estimate of areas to practice sports

16 Cf. LANGENBUCH, Jurgen Richard. A Estruturação da Grande São Paulo. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 1971. 17 The eclectic style represented the new influence of the European architecture in vogue and got used in important buildings erected in Sao Paulo in the 1910s and 1920s, as the Municipal Theatre, the Post Office Building and the new Public Market. At this time the electric tram is introduced in the city and will enable great urban changes. 18 This reservoir was responsible for the generation of energy by the conduction of water until the Henry Borden Power Plant in the city of Cubatão at the Santos Lowland. In 1926 the engineer of the Light & Power Company Ltd. Asa White Kenney Billings elaborates a proposal that covers the Tietê, the Pinheiros and other rivers form the basin, by aiming to take advantage of the sof topographic condition of the rivers Tietê and Pinheiros to convert them towards the coast, which would generate more energy with the 700 meters fall between the Atlantic Plateau and the coastline. 19 Cf. DELIJAICOV, 1998.

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and the construction of a movable weir: and the project of Ulhôa Cintra (1923), that enlarge the

previous plan and integrated hygiene, circulation, urbanization and beautification of the city

solutions. However, none of these plans is None of the, however, is implemented and then in 1924

the City Hall creates the Comisssion of Improvements of the Tietê and invites the sanitary engineer

Saturnino de Brito to lead the studies20.

Fig. 6. Map of the urban core and the little farms surrounding São Paulo, beginning of the20th century

20 Cf. LEME, 1999.

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The Improvements Plan of Saturnino de Brito

In 1925, the sanitary engineer Saturnino de Brito presents to the City Hall a report21 containing

three main lines for the river Tietê: defense against the floods on the plain, sailing and removal of

sewage downstream. As floods containment proposed landfills made by the material from the

deepening and broadening of the river, the increasing of the canal slope and the reduction of its

extension. Some mobile dams along the canals were also forecast to ensure minimum flow of water

during drought season as well as two lakes for nautical sports, a recreation island close to the

Grande Bridge and woods to be inundated. Besides that, the report indicated some observations

regarding the new streets that would be opened over the former floodplain. The correct use of the

plain for urban sprawl and its preservation as natural reservoir for the regularization of the river turn

this project the first most important made for the big rivers in São Paulo. Despite of this wide

feature, only the dimensions of the canal was partially used.

Fig. 7. The Improvements Plan, 1925

21 Já no estudo introdutório de seu Project de Melhoramentos, intitulado Algumas Noções de Hidrologia, Saturnino de Brito demonstrou profundo conhecimento acerca da dinâmica natural das águas, possibilidades técnicas de intervenção em rios e suas consequências, salientando a caracterização das enchentes como fenômenos naturais e a dificuldade de se solver o problema das inundações. Junto a isso, critica a ocupação aleatória das várzeas, o desrespeito à natureza e a incompetência técnica dos administradores no estudo dos rios e bacias hidrográficas brasileiras. Cf. BONILHA, 2002.

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The Plan of Avenues

By considering the frequency of traffic problems and floods in the 1920s the engineers Prestes

Maia and Ulhôa Cintra were indicated by the City Hall to present a new plan for Sao Paulo. Then in

1930 they created the Plan of Avenues22 that basically defined a road system that conjugated an

irradiation perimeter and three concentric rings composed by perimeter avenues. In this plan the

third ring would be configured by new river valley bottom avenues and a parkways circuit

composed by the roads that would be opened along the Pinheiros and the Tietê - the marginal

avenues. Besides that an urban plan were also proposed for the rivers with monumental buildings,

landscaping, sports structures, wharfs, etc. Despite not being approved as law, the Plan of Avenues

defined the new design of the big rivers of Sao Paulo. By prioritizing the drainage and the urban

occupation23 of the former floodplains, the rivers became rectified canals and the marginal avenues

were built by the riverbanks as idealized by that plan.

Fig. 8. Scheme of the Plan of Avenues, 1930

22 In spite of the Modernism then present in Europe, the Plan of Avenues was clearly Pre-Modernist on its aesthetic and besides the urban and landscaping proposals, the fluvial navigation was also suggested with a connection with the port of Santos initially foreseen by the Light Company. Cf. BONILHA, 2002; SOUZA, 1994, MAIA, 1930. 23 In opinion of Richard Morse, the Plano of Avenues was not made by planners but by ‘engineers with old fashioned ideas’. Cf. MORSE, 1970.

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Fourth Movement: Middle of the 20th Century (1930-1960)

Since 1930 an intense process of modernization begins to be promoted by the State

Government and by the private sector. With an industrialization process consolidated, a high

population growth and a visible process of property speculation, two of the main features of the

Brazilian urbanization will begin to take place in São Paulo: the extensive growth and the

‘verticalisation’. While the rivers Tamanduateí and Tietê are rectified by the Comission of

Improvements24, the Light & Power Company begins the works on the rio Pinheiros25 and also

build the Lift Station of Pedreira (1939) and Traição (1940). At the confluence of the big rivers the

called Strutcture of Retiro was built (1942) to aim to control and invert the water flow of the river

PInheiros. However, the rivers water quality is continuously deteriorated due to the lack of

investment. Besides of that, the reversion of the Pinheiros attracted to this river and to the

Reservoir Billings the pollution of the Tietê, more affected by sewage. In spite of it, the reservoirs

kept offering the better conditions of leisure26.

24 The works begun at many parts of the river and the channel was constructed as the Project of Ulhôa Cintra reviewed by Saturnino de Brito, in which the width of the section of flow was reduced as well as the marginal avenues. The lake proposed by Brito were suppressed as well as most part f the floodplain embankment, which would reduce the efficiency against flooding afterwards.. Cf. BONILHA, 2002 25

At this time, São Paulo consolidates its process of industrialization and in the end of the 1930s already accounts for more than half production in Brazil. In the following decades many kinds of industries will settle at the metropolitan region, attracting thousands of migrants and immigrants and the population goes from 1.300.000 in 1940 to 2.200.00 in 1950. In the 1940s the road ways begin to compete with the railways and offer best conditions of circulation and accessibility while the trams begin to lose space to the trolleybus and omnibus and at the 1960s were out of circulation. Then São Paulo spreads horizontally and at the same time the intense process of ‘verticalization’ begins, initially in the center of the city.Cf. LANGENBUCH, 1971; REIS , 2004; SOUZA, 1994. 26 Because thebig change s that will occur on the riverbanks on the canalization of the rivers, the Sport clubs decided to build their own pools in the 1930s. The last Swim Crossing in the Tietê took place in 1944. In 1972 the olympic swimming pool of the University of São Paulo, parallel to the rio Pinheiros, is constructed signing the end of the sportive use of the rivers. Cf. BONILHA, 2002.

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Fig. 9. The former Grande Bridge, 1941

The Moses Plan

In 1951 the mayor Lineu Prestes invites Robert Moses and consultants of the International Basic

Economy Corporation from New York to make a report27 inside the Program of Public

Improvements for São Paulo City. On this report Mores proposed the improvements of the public

transport services and the public sanitation, as well as the creation of public parks and the

suggestion of the urbanization of the plains of the Pinheiros and the Tietê. Besides that, he

reaffirmed the propose of implantation of the highways along the canals, considered impracticable

the changing of the railway idealized by Prestes Maia and found remote the possibility of

navigation. In the end, highlighted the necessity of expansion plans and legislation for the

reminiscent allotments and considered vital the point of sewage.

27 Cf. SOMEKH, 2002.

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Fifth Movement: Final of the 20th (1960-1990)

In the decade of 1960, there was some regions still no occupied along the canals, several

bridges crossed them and the part between Penha and Osasco was mostly built. The highways were

initialized, the sport clubs remain at the same place - although now separated from the rivers - and

there were still several football fields by the floodplains. By following the works of Prestes Maia

(1961- 1965) and Faria Lima (1965-1969), the new mayor Paulo Maluf (1969-1971) finalizes the

express avenues. In this context, new plans are idealized to organize the land use and occupation in

the Metropolitan Region28, including specific proposals for the rivers Pinheiros e Tietê. From less

than 4 million in 1960 the population of São Paulo reaches 8,5 million in 1980. In 1987 the mayor

Luiza Erundina approves the creation of the Environmental Protection Area of the Plain of the

Tietê.

Fig. 10. Vila Anastácio, River Tietê, 1962

28 Since the 1970s São Paulo gradually leaves its industrial main characteristic to become a service metropolis. Besides that some changes take place also in the process o urbanization. The construction of the marginal avenues, for instance, creates an easy accessibility that encourages the emergence of malls and commercial centers along the former riverbanks and new ‘city-garden’ neighborhoods in the cities surrounding the capital. At the same time the slums grow in the periphery of the city, by arising the social economic distance. The ambiguity of the called ‘Brazilian miracle’ is a clear fact in the paulista capital.

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The Plan of Urban Use of the Plain of the Tietê, the PMDI and the PDDI

In 1969 a new plan is elaborated - the Basic Urban Plan (PUB) -, when the mayor Faria Lima

still headed the City Hall.). Inside that, architects Jorge Wilheim and Waldemar Cordeiro idealized

the called Plan of Urban Use of the Plain of the Tietê, aiming to turn compatible industrial,

administrative, cultural and recreational activities along the plain of the river. Several metropolitan

equipments were then projected as five parks, a nautical park, a fitness club, an aeronautical area, an

exhibition and congress center, a municipal administrative center and an omnibus central station29.

However, despite some ideas become true, as the construction of the Anhembi Park and the Tietê

Bus Terminal, this plan was not approved either and only became into the base for the Metropolitan

Plano of Integrated Development (PMDI)30.

In 1970 the PMDI was then created by the City Hall to substitute the PUB. Composed by

several main lines for the metropolitan region of the Great São Paulo, this plan defined specific

purposes for the plains of the big rivers, regarding the urban structure and the sanitation. Among

that the idea of “metropolitan corridors” 31 linking the transport systems installed along the plains

(suburban railways on the valley of the Tietê and by the rivers Pinheiros and Tamanduateí that

could be modernized) to the radial-concentric shape of the road system of the city was one of the

most important because it could be well adjusted to the future population density and the

concentration of tertiary activities that would take place due to the gradual leave of industries.

In 1972 the next plan - PDDI - was regulated by the architect Roberto Cerqueira César and

created eight kinds of zones for the city. The plain of the Tietê was mainly covered by Z6 zone

(predominantly industrial use), Z8 zone (especial use) and some ZUPI (industrial zones). In the

other hand, in 1976 the new State Protection Laws of Sources was created and indicated new zones

to protect the surrounding areas of the reservoirs that gradually had been occupied.

29 All the equipments would be placed in Special Zones (ZE) and there would be also a proposal for creation of Industrial, Residential and Commercial Zones to avoid the rigid zoning for the area. 30 Cf. Government do Estado de São Paulo, Secretaria dos Negócios da Economia e do Planejamento / GEGRAN / SERFHAU / ASPLAN / GPI / NEVES & PAOLIELLO. APUD BONILHA, 2002. 31 Besides these three corridors, there would be another one along the Paulista Avenue. The idea of the metropolitan corridors, defended by Cândido Malta inside the PMDI, intended to show the technical and economical efficacy of the rail-transport against the wheel-transport that prevailed. The Plan also investigated alternatives for the construction of a new international airport that would take place at Cumbica in the plain of the Tietê 12 km away from downtown. As for sanitation, there were the following proposals: state legislation to control the preservation of the reservoirs: implementation of emissaries along the rives Pinheiros, Tietê and Tamanduateí; construction of dams and lift stations to

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Figs. 11 e 12. Plan of Urban Use, 1969; Project Tietê, 1986

The Modernist Parks of Ruy Ohtake and Oscar Niemeyer

In 1976 the architect Ruy Ohtake presents to the State Government the project of the

Ecological Park of the Tietê32. In its original design the park covered two specific parts - a first one

bigger, between Salesópolis and Guarulhos, and a second one smaller, from Osasco to Santana do

Parnaiba. Besides that, there was a proposal of landscaping for the marginal avenues, the

construction of new bridges, the prediction of public equipments and the resumption of the former

fauna and flora. In spite of its complexity and the involvement of professionals of different areas,

this Project was considered impracticable due to the necessity of large expropriations. In the end,

there was only the implantation of two pilot-plants: the East Zone Park and the Tamboré Park, em

Barueri.

In 1986 the architect Oscar Niemeyer is invited to execute the project for both big rivers and

purposes the Park of the Tietê33, that foresaw the expropriation of 10 millions of meters square

along 18 kilometers by the left riverbank to create a huge park with residences, offices, leisure and

sport areas, landscaping, touristic navigation ports, nautical sports a civic center and a cultural

avoid floods, etc. 32 The Tietê Ecological Park is created in the end of the 1980s in the limi between São Paulo and Guarulhos and had as premises: creation of Woods to recupreate the native flora and flauna (the landscaping project by Roberto Burle Marx was partially exectude); implementation of social equipments for leisuere and environmental education; creation of nautical structure as support to loading and passengers navigation (Nautical City) Cf. ECOURBS / Government do Estado de São Paulo. Cf. BONILHA, 2002. 33 Cf. NIEMEYER, 1986.

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center. While the enlargement of the rivers were proposed the marginal avenues would be removed

to be constructed a new elevated road instead, articulated with a second one on the ground floor.

However the project was also considered impracticable and nothing was made.

Fig. 13. River Tietê and the marginal avenues, 1974

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Sixth Movement: Amid-Centuries 20th and 21st

After the construction of the marginal avenues there was a valorization of the areas by the

rivers and then on the last decades of the 20th century the gaps that could become green areas over

the former riverbanks were occupied by different uses especially the commercial and service ones.

At the same time, new proposals are developed by the State Government, as the modernization of

the suburban railways on the marginal Pinheiros and the called Urban Operations. Since the 1990s

the metropolitan corridors take place and the City Hall also executed new environmental projects as

dam-reservoirs, a cleaning and dredging program. In the end of the century, even with the

improvements of the road system made since the Plan of Avenues, the city keeps presenting some

traffic jam problems. Against that it is proposed the “rodoanel” - a road ring to connect all access

highways to Sao Paulo and to take out the hard traffic from the avenues inside the city, including

the marginal ones. By considering that, the rivers and the marginal avenues became a target for a

public contest in 1999, when one more plan is idealized but not executed.

The Tietê Project and the Masterplan of Macrodrenagem

Before the pollution problems that affected the water resources of the basin of the Tietê a

decontamination program is created in 1992 by the State Government - the Tietê Project - inserted

in the Masterplan of Macrodrainage, by aiming to enlarge the sewer network34 from the villages of

the Great São Paulo, to control the industrial pollution and to combat flooding by the construction

of water tanks and one waste incinerator as well as the deepening of the canal. The first phase of the

project was finished in 2000 when the capacity of the treatment of the existent station was enlarged

and some new stations were built. Besides that dams on the headwaters of the Tietë were finalized

and works for implantation of new dams were begun. In 2002 a new phase is initiated when a

specific program for the river Pinheiros was idealized.

34 Until the middle ofthe 1990s the sewage network in São Paulo served only 64%, of population and from this only 24% received suitable treatment.

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The “Urban Operations” Água Branca and Água Espraiada

Two of the urban operations created in the end of the 1980s reached punctually the plains of the

big rivers. In 1993 the Urban Operation Água Branca35 is created, covering a 600.000 m² area at the

plain of the Tietê between the railway and the marginal avenues, with good accessibility and several

public equipments. Still in force, this operation aims to encourage the use of the urban gaps with

service and commercial centers, public recreation areas and pedestrian paths. New real estates and

road works have been executed lately as result of the operation. As for the Urban Operation of Água

Espraiada, it reached a little part of the marginal Pinheiros, but provoked improvements in the road

access of one of the most valuable zones of São Paulo.

The Marginals Contest

During the government of Celso Pitta (1997-2000), at the first time the marginals became

subject of a public contest. The project, won by the architect Bruno Padovano36, propose a system

of parallel avenues and operational operational measures to avoid the traffic flows on the marginal

Pinheiros and Tietê; five environmental protection bands to grow the soil permeabilization rates;

urban afforestation at the border areas; graduation on the height of the buildings since the

riverbanks; elements of special interconnection between public areas in the riverbanks and

surroundings, commercial centers, new bridges for vehicles and public transportation, pedestrians

walkways; and an integrate system of visual communication and urban design. By considering the

riverbanks as strategic territory for the valorization of São Paulo as a global city and the articulation

of the Metropolitan Region, the Urban Operation Marginals was suggested to be created. In spite of

all complexity and significant coverage the project had no sequence.

35 The Urban Operation is a management instrument to coordinate a process of urban renew at some area of the city made by the City Hall. The first one was called Anhangabaú Operation (1989) and took place in the area of the former stream Anhangabaú in the center of the city. The following ones were Água Branca (1995) , City (1997) and Água Espraiada (2001). 36 The winner project was coordinate by architect Bruno Padovano and the team was composed by architects. Jaques Suchodolski and Percival Brosig (Urbanism and Architecture Coordination), architect Suely Suchodolski (Landscaping Coordination), engineer Neuton Karassawa (Road System and Transportation Coordination), architects Issao Minami and José Arnaldo da Cunha and admnistrtor Julio Albieri Neto (Visual Communication and Urban Furniture Desgin).

20

Fig. 14. Contest of Marginals, Punctual Area 1

Bru

no P

adov

ano

and

team

21

FINALS

In spite of so many plans idealized and partially implemented, the Pinheiros and Tietê have

been suffering lately a visible process of contamination and, if sanitation and traffic system had

improved in a way, the remove of several tributaries of these main rivers and the sealing of former

green areas intensified the quantity of floods. By prioritizing the vehicles circulation, unfortunately

the rivers became just a flume between the marginal highways. However, even still presenting a

negative image, it is evident the importance of these rivers for the comprehension of the visual

image of the city of Sao Paulo and they can be together as a valuable system of environmental

visual communication.

Fig. 15. View of the Tietê from the Grande Bridge, 1914

By considering the first historical movement of these rivers, we could say they presented

initially a clear image of contemplation for the first inhabitants of the village. While people did use

the rivers by the plateau - specially the Tamanduateí - for washing clothes, baths and even to

dumping garbage, the big rivers are still far away, only suggesting ways to reach the unknown

country as well as connecting ancient villages that would be joined in the future into the same city.

As for the second movement, it reveals an image of recreation, when the big rivers - specially

the Tietê - are reached more easily and became, in some specific parts, places where the appearance

22

of sport clubs spreads the urban life for them. Then the rivers become social life elements in a way,

but this feature unfortunately would be extinct in some decades.

Afterwards, the third movement shows the idea of idealization, when the government intends to

“organize” the rivers and their riverbanks, by giving them a civilized character as the cities of the

developed countries. At the same time, the plans aim to solve the serious problems that already

affected the population: epidemics and floods. Among them, the plan of Saturnino de Brito stood

out by its broad and integrated character and its real idea to insert the rivers into the daily life of the

city. However, the functionalist proposal made inside the Plan of Avenenus by Prestes Maia gains

strength and becomes the basis for the subsequent movements of the rivers.

Then the fourth movement shows us a new image of the Pinheiros and the Tietê, that go

through significant changes, lose their original sinuosity and shape a new design more artificial by

their canalization. With the removal of the original vegetation, the construction of the avenues and

no public area by the waters, the rivers became ordinary places to pass through.

Circulation became then the image that stood out in the fifth movement, when the highways by

the river consolidate the metropolitan and regional connection roads. The continuous process of

contamination - especially generated by the lack of suitable sewage treatment - corroborates this

image. Besides that, new metropolitan plans are idealized, indicating guidelines for the floodplains

of the rivers. By the other hand, new projects are made, enabling only the construction of an

ecological park, a big issue before so many absences. However, at the meeting with the city, the

rivers are already considered death and there is no life anymore in their waters.

23

Fig. 16. Meeting of the rivers Tamanduateí and Tietê, beginning of the 21st century

In the end, the sixth movement tries to revert the negative image of contamination that was

created during the antecessor movements, in a process of recuperation that begin to be visible even

in a discrete and limited way. Then punctual proposals are made to re-qualify the scenery by the

rivers Pinheiros and Tietê, clean their waters and control the floods that still happen. In a rare

attempt a new contest is idealized and a new project that covered all the complex situation of the

rivers and the marginal avenues is made. However the good ideas did not go ahead again.

Visible (or invisible?) by thousands of people daily, big urban gaps that cross the metropolis,

the rivers Pinheiros and Tietê are still there, undesirable and desirable at the same time. In the

reflection of their water, they reflect geography and history of the territory. In the reverse of the

constructing that dominates in São Paulo, permit the existence of the interval required for

apprehending it in its immensity. But will they be completely unpolluted someday? Will any project

that considers them in a valuable way be really executed? Could we walk for pleasure by them or

navigate on their waters? Shall we admire the city for its own landscape? The answers for that seem

to be a bit far way before the complexity of São Paulo. However, any discussion about it certainly

gets close to the wish to have the waters of the rivers clean again and feel them crossing the

territory as elements alive for the city and its citizens.

Nel

son

Koh

n

24

Fig. 17. Região Metropolitana de São Paulo, final do séc. 20

Lan

dsat

7, 2

000

25

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