Lina Bo Bardi designed the horizontal block of the São Paulo Museum of Art, and the engineer José Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz worked on its structure. Construction began in 1957, and Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the building during her visit to Brazil. It stands at Avenida Paulista 1578, on the former site of the Belvedere Trianon, and the city required the view toward downtown and the Nove de Julho valley to be preserved.
A reinforced concrete and glass volume hangs 26 feet (8 m) above the ground on four pillars joined by two large concrete beams. The 243-foot (74 m) free span beneath it was the largest in the world at the time. Bo Bardi displayed paintings on tempered glass sheets set in concrete bases, like a painter's easel. The museum dropped this method in the late 1990s.
A controversial renovation ran from 1996 to 2001. The Pietro Maria Bardi annex opened in March 2025.
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