SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Sprawling Sao Paulo may grow upward rather than outward if a Brazilian tycoon makes good on his promise to build the world's tallest building in the decaying center of South America's largest city.
Mario Garnero, a real estate mogul turned pariah after his empire collapsed in 1985, vows to build by 2005 a 103-story tower emulating a Hindu temple that will house 50,000 workers and residents.The 1,622-foot skyscraper, the Sao Paulo Tower, or Garnero's Pyramid, as the skeptical local media call it, will rise above the world's current tallest building in Asia, Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers.
Garnero sold main investor Maharishi Global Development Fund on the idea of backing the Sao Paolo Tower concept. The fund is run by famed Indian mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who turned the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on to transcendental meditation.
"Sao Paulo ranks among the three largest cities of the world," Garnero told Reuters. "It deserves a landmark that proves that and the fact that it is turning into the capital of international finance, at least for South America."
Sao Paulo, the world's third-largest metropolitan area after Tokyo and Mexico City with 16 million souls, beat out Tokyo and New Delhi for the white temple topped with a golden crown, inspired by the yogi.
Minoru Yamasaki Associates, the architects of New York City's World Trade Center, have been chosen to execute the monument, valued at $1.65 billion.