Observation Deck Blues

I’ve been frustrated with observation decks in New York for some time now. There’s about a dozen buildings or structures that used to have public observation decks that are now closed, or used for private space. I’ve managed to get up a few of them, but it’s always been of the unofficial variety: going out a window of an abandoned office in the Williamsburg Saving Bank building,climbing what remains of the rusted stairs in the 1964 World’s Fair towers in Flushing, Queens, and (my favorite) spending a romantic night watching the 4th of July fireworks after climbing the scaffolding to the top of the Prison Martyrs Monument in Ft. Greene Park.

There’s also been a few others I’ve been able to head up to during an event or after a friend has gotten me into the building. But trying to just talk your way in cold is pretty much an exercise in futility. It seems like the city is conspiring to keep you off its heights.

In New York City, one of the top tourist destinations in the world, there’s two public observation decks. While the views are great, both cost way too much, and one regularly has hours-long lines. The pattern for them, and for most touristy observation decks I’ve visited, seems to be to jazz stuff up with a lot of bells and whistles, charge a ton of money, and advertise it as an “experience” (A good tourist rule of thumb is to skip anything that advertises itself as an “experience”). That’s what happened with the Rockefeller Center Observation deck, and it’s what’s currently happening with the under-renovation Empire State Building. Of course they didn’t hesitate to take the first step - raising prices exorbitantly - before actually completing any of the renovations.

Here’s what people want from an observation deck - to be up high, have an unobstructed view of the city, and be able to snap a few pictures. They don’t want $20 souvenir photos of them superimposed in front of the building. They don’t want talking elevators. They don’t want a tzotzke shop the size of Rhode Island to walk through before getting to the deck.

Luckily, all that garbage goes out the window in Sao Paulo. I made it up to half a dozen rooftops when I was there, and best of all never paid a dime. Some are your standard touristy observation decks (although free of charge). Some are only open sporadically or - as is standard in Latin countries - seemingly at the whim of whoever happens to be on duty. Some are private, but simply a matter of asking building management to let you up. I had been up one of the official ones - the Edificio Martinelli - on my previous trip to Sao Paulo, and hit a couple others - the Edificio Italia and Altino Arantes on this trip.

View from the Edificio Italia - they'll also let you up the building in the foreground if you ask.

View from the Edificio Italia looking down.

View south from Altino Arantes - aka the BANESPA building.

View southwest from Altino Arantes.

These were all in the old downtown, affording only somewhat different views of the city. Luckily, I also got up to a rooftop bar in the Avenida Paulista area a few miles south, affording a gorgeous view of the row of rooftop antennas that is a Sao Paulo skyline landmark.

There’s been talk of removing the antennas (which are located among the skyscrapers on Avenida Paulista because the avenue is geographically the highest point in Sao Paulo), and replacing them with one large antenna, similar to the CN Tower or Seattle Space needle, but I personally hope this doesn’t happen. Even thought the antennas are somewhat outdated and not terrible aesthetic, they are an interesting identifying feature of the skyline and entire city. For a town that doesn’t do a great job marketing itself, some kind of unique identity is always a plus.

If you are visiting Sao Paulo, this next advice is imperative - do not believe what you read in guidebooks or on the Internet concerning what's open and allows visitors and what doesn't. What you read might be right, it might be half right, it might be officially-factually-correct-but-not-at-all-relevant-to-actual-reality, or it might be dead wrong. Whenever travelling, it's always best to check these things out for yourself, but this goes double in Sao Paulo. I've never seen the guidebooks and websites be so inaccurate about basic tourist info as in Sao Paulo.

With one day to go in town, I was pretty satisfied with the views I'd had. But the best rooftop surprise was still yet to come…