A new member of 3d-4f metal–organic framework (MOF), Gd2Cu(μ-H2O)2(ip)4(CH3CH(NH3)CO2)2·H2O (1, ip = 1,3-benzene dicarboxylate), was generated by the hydrothermal self-assembly of Gd2O3, CuCl2, H2ip, and L-alanine. In 1, the slightly distorted CuO4 squares combine with GdO9 polyhedra via ip and CH3CH(NH3)CO2 carboxyl groups to create the Gd2Cu(CO2)8(CH3CH(NH3)CO2)2 rod-like substructure; such species are further linked together by phenyl units of ip to give the pcu-type rod packing. The subsequent topology analysis based on O'Keeffe's definition and classification of rod-based MOFs suggests the irl net of 1. Moreover, as evidenced by TG and XRD research, the potential microporous structure that owns the solvent-accessible volume of 246 A3, equal to 5.7% of the cell volume, can be maintained until 285 °C after the loss of coordinated water molecules. The magnetic measurements suggest weak ferromagnetic interactions within the Gd2Cu(CO2)8(CH3CH(NH3)CO2)2 rod-like substructure, which is estimated by the fitting of χM = C/(T-θ) with θ = +0.2K and a simplified Gd–J–Cu–J–Gd mode with J = +0.23 cm−1, g = 2.0, TIP = 100 × 10−6 cm3 mol−1K.