The banker Orozimbo Roxo Loureiro created the 500 Club in the early 1950s. It followed the lines of the former 200 Club, founded by President Washington Luís to bring together influential politicians and businessmen away from the spotlight of capital cities. The initial idea of a social club did not prosper, and Orozimbo decided to develop a commercial and tourist enterprise in the area, which is well positioned between the two largest Brazilian cities.
Located in Guaratinguetá, a strategic stopping point halfway between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the implementation was in an old farm that had its area cut off by the newly built road, the current Presidente Dutra highway. Orozimbo hired the architect Oscar Niemeyer. With him, he had already started large-scale works for the Banco Nacional Imobiliário (National Real Estate Bank), which would build some of the architect's greatest works in São Paulo, such as the Copan, Montreal, Eiffel and California buildings.
On the south side of the road, a new neighborhood was created based on an allotment developed by Abelardo de Souza, with four buildings designed by Niemeyer: a gas station, a snack bar, a restaurant and a residence for its administrator. On the north side, Niemeyer designed four other buildings that define the hotel program: two blocks with ten suites each, a dining room and a lobby. Six of these eight buildings still exist, and the entrance was demolished at an unknown date (but probably during the road expansion). The restaurant was partially demolished and subsequently integrated into expansion works, which made it lose its character.
Buildings
The gas station is configured by a slender sloping concrete roof supported by a succession of sculptural 'K' shaped columns, marking the fueling area. The replacement of two columns with walls defines the auto workshop. At the same time, a closed stretch in masonry that does not touch the slab encloses a section of unknown original use and compartmentalization. Different from the project, in this part of the building, the 'K' columns were replaced during construction by simple, cylindrical ones.
The gas station annex, located immediately in front of it, contained changing rooms for employees, garages, a snack bar and a rest area for travelers. The building had five combined concrete vaults, the architect's trademark at the time. One of its faces was closed by perforated concrete rulers (also used in other club projects), ensuring unity in the complex. In the case of the snack bar, there were two layers of these prefabricated elements, the inner one having a square hole where small pieces of glass sealed the plane. The restaurant that no longer exists was also defined by concrete vaults but with larger and lower spans. Its original plan is unknown since no project has reached the present day, except for the gas station. However, it is known from images from the period that the building had three vaults, one of which is smaller than the others.
Closing the works on the south side of the highway, there is a small residence of 160 square meters with a bathroom, a toilet, a kitchen, a living room and three bedrooms with private winter gardens protected from the sun by the same perforated concrete elements present in the snack bar. Its trapezoidal design with sloping façade results in a simple and striking yet transparent volume, another recurring strategy of the architect in the late 1940s. The residential buildings of the Centro Técnico de Aeronáutica (CTA), in São José dos Campos, the Leonel Miranda residence, in Rio de Janeiro, his own house in Mendes and the unbuilt project of the Burton Tremaine residence, in California, are sister projects.
On the north side of the road, there was a gatehouse whose wooden roof beams cantilevered over the access, supported by a concrete totem with a dynamic design and a neon sign with the number 500, also acting as an advertising landmark for the project. 400 meters away from the road, close to the former headquarters of the farm, Niemeyer implemented the three other hotel buildings - the only ones not parallel to the road like the rest, but which followed the orientation of the mansion.
The dining hall, roughly square in plan, is divided into a kitchen, storage area, toilets and lounge. Its elevation is also trapezoidal and features a gestural design in which a wall, 'folded' twice, becomes a roof and a high beam that helps structure its transverse interspace. The façade, like many of the architect's, has a three-part façade, with a free plan executed in bricks laid in a French setting, a central section in glass, and a wall originally deep blue that defines the volume of the toilets when entering the building. The wall separating the lounge from the kitchen, immediately opposite the entrance, contains a large mural by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, executed during its construction when the artist lived at the club for one year.
Finally, two identical blocks with ten suites each complete the set. Following the residence pattern, each unit had an individual winter garden facing north, with a pergola and again protected by prefabricated perforated elements. However, here they cover the entire façade of the building, resulting in a minimalist elevation like the one opposite, where the hallway leads to the rooms, enclosed by a wall of interspersed bricks. The side gables also display exposed bricks in the same arrangement as the hall. The images from the period illustrate the use of furniture designed by the architect, originally for CTA, in the hotel. Details such as the design of the bedside tables, the wood-covered walls and the ceiling painted in green attest to the degree of attention dedicated to its setting.
Although little known, the project was published in international books and magazines. Stamo Papadaki's second monograph, which talks about the architect's work, was published in the special issue on Brazilian architecture of the French magazine L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui and in the American Progressive Architecture, where its structural characteristics are highlighted. Furthermore, the project was the cover of the October 1952 edition of Acrópole magazine, one of the most important in Brazil at the time.
All works have some degree of mischaracterization, contrasting with their relevance. Fortunately, most of them are easily reversible. The architectural ensemble of the 500 Club was listed in 2023 as a heritage of the State of São Paulo by the Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage (Condephaat).
Technical Data
- Name of work: 500 Club: Gas station; Restaurant; Residence; Entrance; Hotel blocks; Dining hall
- Authors: Oscar Niemeyer, Carlos Cavalcanti de Carvalho (engineer)
- Started year: 1951
- Completion year: 1952
- Address: Presidente Dutra Highway km 60 (22°47'17.2"S 45°09'25.1"W)
Bibliography
- ARCHITECTURE d'Aujourd'Hui, Paris, no. 42/43, agosto 1952.
- CLUBE dos 500. In Acrópole, São Paulo, ano XV no. 174, p. 208-210, 1952.
- CANETTIERI, Ana Cristina. Clube dos 500. Um patrimônio modernista em Guaratinguetá. In: Minha Cidade, São Paulo, ano 23, n. 265.01, Vitruvius, set. 2022.
- FIGUEIREDO, Rolando. As obras de Oscar Niemeyer para o Clube dos 500 em Guaratinguetá (1951 - 1953). Relatório de iniciação científica junto à FAU Mackenzie. Orientação de Ruth Verde Zein. Fapesp processo 17/04879-8. São Paulo, 2017.
- FIGUEIREDO, Rolando. Auto Posto Clube dos 500: excepcionalidade de uma linguagem Niemeyeriana no pré-Brasília. In: Arquitextos, São Paulo, ano 17, n. 193.03, Vitruvius, jun. 2016.
- GEODETIC and plastic expressions abroad. In: Progressive Architecture, p. 114-116, jun. 1953.
- PAPADAKI, Stamo. Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress. New York: Reinhold, 1956.
