The Verticalization of Downtown Rio de Janeiro during the Vargas Era (1930–1945)

Abstract

This article examines the reconstruction of downtown Rio de Janeiro during the Vargas dictatorship (1937–1945), when the colonial urban fabric was replaced by a modern one characterized by high-rise buildings. This transformation was governed by building codes that prescribed layouts, alignments, heights, and architectural details, seeking to produce an orchestrated urban landscape of tall buildings. These regulations derived from the plan elaborated by the French urbanist Alfred Agache (1928–1930). A landmark in Brazilian urbanism, Agache’s plan aimed to resolve Rio’s functional deficiencies while projecting a modern image for the nation’s capital at the time. Although initially shelved after its presentation, its principles were revived and adapted by Mayor Henrique Dodsworth, who assumed office in 1937 and remained throughout the Vargas regime. Political and technical conflicts curtailed the plan’s scope to the urbanization of the Esplanada do Castelo and the construction of the monumental Avenida Presidente Vargas. Dodsworth employed Agache’s regulatory framework to secure façade alignment, volumetric unity, and stylistic coherence, thereby consolidating a monumental urban landscape of high-rise buildings and expansive open spaces. The article underscores how urban codes operated as mediating instruments between urban form, political imperatives, and the aspirations of architects, bureaucrats, and private clients, ultimately producing a modern urban core marked by monumentality and associated with corporatism and state intervention under Vargas.