Avenida Paulista Library, São Paulo, Brazil

Date of Sketch: December 5, 2009

Four city blocks from Lina Bo Bardi's São Paulo Museum is the redevelopment site for a new community library. The Library's main floor is raised two levels above grade on a platform containing commercial and parking uses. The building's active form is generated by its highly textured urban setting, much the same as Martinu's Violin Concerto #2 was inspired by the composer hearing the violinist Misha Elman play for the first time. Martinu, after hearing Elman's "marvelously expressive magical" tone, began work on his composition which Elman premiered eleven months later with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.