at a glance

at the turn of the twentieth century, an engineer named william (guilherme) maxwell began the urbanization of the large land tracts which were once wetlands reclaimed for sugarcane plantations. he developed the then new neighborhood called the cidade dos aliados (city of the allies).

the new development featured the praça das nações (praça of nations) and the new large avenidas (avenues) named ofter londres (london), paris, nova york (new york), bruxelas (brussels) and roma (rome).

another engineer, a brazilian named paulo de frontin created a development on the opposite side of maxwell's project. frontin opened several new streets including clemenceau, saint hilaire and humboldt.