ABSTRACT
Designed by Lodovico, B.di Belgiojoso; completed 1958; Milan, Italy Completed in 1958, the 26-story Torre Velasca (Velasca Tower) was built by architects
Lodovico B.di Belgiojoso (1909-), Enrico Peressutti (1908-76), and Ernesto N.Rogers (1909-69) of the Studio Architetti BBPR in collaboration with structural engineer Arturo Danusso. Only the second skyscraper to be built in Italy, it followed the Pirelli Tower, designed by Gio Ponti with structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, by two years. Milan’s two highrise towers redefined the skyline of the most industrial city in Italy at precisely the moment when modern life began to eclipse the traditional agrarian economy and bleak wartime conditions were giving way to new prosperity. Unlike the Pirelli Tower, located in the vicinity of Milan’s Stazione Centrale, and thus somewhat removed from the historic center of the city, the Velasca Tower was situated at the intersection of Corso di Porta Romana and Via Velasca, in the ambit of the unique Gothic Duomo and Giuseppe Mengoni’s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele.
