Sala São Paulo
Concert hall inside the former Júlio Prestes railway station, home of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.
Sala São Paulo occupies the Grand Hall of the Júlio Prestes railway station, a Louis XVI-inspired terminus built between 1926 and 1938 for the Sorocabana Railway to designs by Christiano Stockler das Neves. Work to turn the disused hall into a concert venue began in November 1997, and the room opened on 9 July 1999 as the permanent home of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. The surrounding building is now the Complexo Cultural Júlio Prestes, which also holds rehearsal rooms, a library and a shop.
The hall seats about 1,498 people, with roughly 830 in the stalls and the remainder in boxes and balconies. Its acoustics were designed by the American consultancy Artec, whose scheme hangs fifteen movable ceiling panels of some 7.5 tonnes each about 25 metres above the floor; raising or lowering them changes the room's volume between roughly 12,000 and 28,000 cubic metres to suit chamber or symphonic repertoire. Guided visits explain the restoration, the acoustics and the workings of the hall.
Highlights
- Movable ceiling of fifteen panels that tunes the hall's acoustics
- Grand Hall of the 1930s Júlio Prestes station, restored in the 1990s
- Resident Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
- Guided visits covering the restoration and acoustic design
