The ambitious Rosewood São Paulo—the brand’s first in South America—was over a decade in the making. An undertaking of this magnitude required a team of design heavyweights, including French architect Jean Nouvel and designer Philippe Starck, to bring it to life.

Rosewood is known for its “A Sense of Place” principle, and the partnership with Nouvel and Starck kept that philosophy front and center. The teams had a “shared goal to honor Brazil and preserve its rich history while creating a more sustainable future,” says Joanne Behrens, Rosewood’s vice president of design and project services, Americas.

Set within the historic enclave of Cidade Matarazzo—a complex of preserved buildings from the early 20th-century that has been transformed into a 320,000-square-foot mixed-use lifestyle hub—the hotel is located in the fully restored historic Matarazzo Maternity Ward building (home to 46 guestrooms and suites, as well as the hotel’s six restaurants) and a new structure called Mata Atlantica by Nouvel, occupied by the remaining 114 guestrooms and suites, 100 private residences, and soon, Rosewood’s integrative wellbeing concept Asaya.

The fusion of old and new is a central design theme—the recognition of Brazil’s rich past with nods to the future. “This was the vision that tied together the tower with the historic buildings,” says Behrens. “Both are rooted in sustainability, as one was upcycled and the other was intended to seamlessly fit into the natural landscape.” Take the vertical garden tower, rising 328 feet into the sky and a symbol of São Paulo’s future. Covered in wood and wrapped in 10,000 trees, it also boasts a biodiversity program that repopulates the indigenous flora and fauna from the Mata Atlantica rainforest.

Starck’s interiors, meanwhile, reflect the designer’s signature bold aesthetic, mixing modernity with the country’s natural landscape and deep design legacy. To that end, Starck chose a palette of earth tones, local wood and marble, and featured furnishings by Brazilian designers. “I didn’t design the Cidade Matarazzo as a hotel or a restaurant, but as literature,” says Starck. “The dream is simple: to create an island, to create a paradise in the middle of the city, which becomes the center of life in the city. Finally, we can say that my job was to give birth to birth again.”

The design team was also committed to elevating the country’s creatives, artists, and artisans. Consider the permanent collection of 450 site-specific artworks, created in partnership with 57 Brazilian artists. Among those are the handpainted tiles depicting native flora and fauna by contemporary artist Sandra Cinto that line the rooftop pool and bar area. There is also a graffiti-inspired painting located in one of the maternity building’s corridors by São Paulo street artist Caligrapixo.

The standout, however, is in the 1930s-inspired jazz bar Rabo di Galo, where a mural featuring constellation-like patterns by local artist Rodrigo de Azevedo Saad, who spent 68 hours hand-drawing the design, stretches across the ceiling. “It’s the perfect setting for listening to Brazilian music and interacting with the locals,” says Behrens. “It’s a new, distinct experience, and Rosewood São Paulo has many of those throughout the property, ripe to be discovered.”