Poetic Fragments of a Hostess's Hillside.

• Author: Stafford, Kathryn
• Position: Parque das Ruinas in Santa Teresa section of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, former home of Laurinda Santos Lobo - Includes article on Arte de Portas Abertas, or Open House to Art, in Santa Teresa

She knew Heitor Villa-Lobos well enough to pass out tickets at his first concerts, and any famous visiting artist or performer was likely to find a place at her table--from Enrico Caruso and Isadora Duncan to Anatole France. Rio de Janeiro's elites dubbed her theft "marshall of elegance," and from her lemon-colored house atop an ancient cobbled hill, Laurinda Santos Lobo literally had the city at her feet.

Today, her erstwhile mansion home appears, at first glance, to be undergoing a renovation, not unlike many residences in the colonial enclave of Santa Teresa these days. As you steadily approach this sunny home on Rua Murtinho Nobre, narrow metal catwalks loom ahead. Your eyes focus, and you wonder, is that a palm tree growing through what should be the second floor? You might think at first that someone should hand you a hard hat; you ready your ears for the whine of a pneumatic drill. But the renovation here is complete, in its fragmentary splendor.

Dedicated four years ago as the Parque das Ruinas, or Park of the Ruins, this former elegant address of one of Rio's most fashionable hostesses is again attracting cariocas and theft friends near and far, as it did nearly a century ago. Only this time, guests wander Laurinda's house on catwalks, and enjoy the open air and natural light filtering through a house very much without glass windowpanes and original roof.

The reason: In the decades following Laurinda's death in 1946, the mansion was falling into disuse and disrepair; first furniture and artworks were removed, then wood trim, tiles, even columns, door frames, and architectural details disappeared. This coincided with the general decline of the neighborhood of Santa Teresa itself, whose older, leafy streets could no longer compete for residents with the bright, high-rise beach communities of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. Then, in 1979, the city of Rio appropriated the property, with the intention of some sort of historic restoration--only what kind, no one was exactly sure. It was the architectural firm of Ernani Freire Arquitetos Associados that decided to preserve the ruins of the old mansion, while attempting to maintain the feeling of the natural process of time, that is, decay. In 1998 Freire, who had worked with old buildings before, won a prize from the Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil for his completed project, which, he believes, has increased the value of the ruins--it's now "more beautiful than the original house," he...