Art: Two from the First Team

In its headlong rush to house an exploding population, Brazil has too often cluttered its cities with shoddy, inelegant apartments and office buildings. But when it comes to edifices that reflect its national pride or civic responsibility, the nation takes full advantage of a generation of architects who have made its public buildings the envy of the world. Two of them are responsible for two of Brazil's latest monuments.

Oscar Niemeyer, 59, internationally famous as the principal architect of the new capital of Brasilia, has lately added to its skyline a sparkling new foreign...