The main body of the school building rises on a platform 1.5 m above street level and is defined by a concrete portico structure. The building was designed to accommodate 640 students and included 16 normal classrooms, a practical teaching area with laboratories and an administrative area, auditorium, staff room, changing room and courtyards. The classrooms were designed in an amphitheater style, which can be clearly seen from the external shape with steps that project outwards. The walls of the building are largely closed, but daylight from the roof reaches from the higher floors to the lower floors through skylights. A completely external staircase complements the sculptural design of the reinforced concrete structure.

The building originates from the so-called Escola de Arquitetura Paulista, a brutalist movement/group of architects from São Paulo under the direction of Vilanova Artigas, which emerged in the Brazilian capital in the 1960s.

The project received numerous awards, including being named the best project at the International Architecture Biennale in 1967. Unfortunately, the building is in very bad condition. It is falling into disrepair due to a lack of maintenance and has been empty since 2013. In February 2010, it was reported that Condepasa (Council for the Defense of the Cultural Heritage of Santos) is examining whether the building should be included in the list of monuments, as the building is a rare example of brutalist architecture in the city. As far as is known, it was actually listed by Condepasa in 2016. In the summer of 2023, it was announced that the listed building would be converted to house several areas of the legislature in the future, including Legislative Television, the Public Archives and the Legislative and Citizenship School. A competition has been launched to carry out the restoration and adaptation works in the former school building, with a deadline of September 5, 2023. We are not yet informed about the exact concept and the planned implementation of the renovation.

This building was included in the red list, published in our exhibition catalog SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (September 2017). After a status review on October 18, 2024, it was reclassified in the online database from red (endangered) to red-blue (endangered and listed).