SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Giovanni Bright didn’t dare chat with his neighbors in the elevator when he bought his apartment 31 years ago.

“You didn’t know who was standing next to you,” he said. “There were drug dealers on the top floors, and some of the apartments were just flop houses for local prostitutes.”

But it was cheap, just $18,000 for a two-bedroom flat near his job in downtown São Paulo. And he was buying a slice of Brazil’s cultural heritage — in the colossal Edifício Copan designed by the celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 1950s.

“At first I thought it was a bit of a disaster,” said Mr. Bright, a professional magician who raises doves in his laundry room and has turned one of his bedrooms over to his collection of tuxedos, costumes and memorabilia. “But you can’t help falling in love with its beauty and its power.”