Pwc and Azimut for the skyscraper in Citylife
13 December, Il Sole 24 Ore
A glass building bending forward, embracing the neighbouring buildings. That’s how the Libeskind tower looks like in the rendering, the last piece on the Citylife mosaic in Milan, in the trade fair area.
The building is under the spotlight as the works have recently started, even though they’re proceeding very slowly. But all the attention is for the names of the companies that will rent the offices. Two are the names currently circulating. One, in pole position, is the consulting giant Pwc, which should occupy the whole building with its 3 thousand employees in Milan. The other competitor might be an international bank or Azimut, which was negotiating for a part of the building. Some experts say that perhaps Generali will take it, the only shareholder at the moment of the whole Citylife project, which will be ready to carry the project forward in short times once the agreement will be signed. Even though from the insurance company they say that the works have already started. Two underground floors, in fact, have been finished. With the new year, the works for the floors above ground will start in order to complete the tower by 2020. The works are behind schedule since the beginning of the excavation works were expected to start in 2015. However, the negotiations have been expedited in the past few days.
The building designed by Daniel Libeskind, that has also designed the residential part consisting in luxury residences, will close the project inaugurated in 2004, started in 2007 and that survived a recession that blocked the Italian real estate for more than eight years.
Altogether, the tower, that the experts say it might cost 150-200 million euro, will be able to accommodate 3 thousand employees, joining the 6 thousand of Allianz and Generali (the latter will move next July), respectively hosted in the tower designed by Arata Isozaki together with Andrea Maffei and the other one by Zaha Hadid.
The Libeskind tower, 175 m height and 31 storeys, is the third highest building in Milan, surpassed by the Allianz tower nearby (242 metres height and 50 storeys) and by the Unicredit tower in Porta Nuova (231 metres). The total gross commercial surface is approximately 33 thousand Sq m.
The shape of the building on the paper reminds of Pietà Rondanini by Michelangelo Buonarroti exhibited in Milan, a bending symbolizing an embrace connecting and uniting all the three buildings together.
The Libeskind tower has obtained, just like the other two towers, the Leed pre-certification with a gold rating. The Generali tower, instead, will be upgraded to Platinum. In fact, the energy saving plan of the Libeskind tower has passed the requirements for its interior lightening system, for the use of groundwater to irrigate the green spaces and to supply water in the washrooms, while the solar panels cover a part of the energy requirements. A control system will manage efficiently all the facilities.
The tower will also feature a lobby with a double terrace, while the whole building is supported by 20 perimeter pillars with a circular section. The façade is constituted by a system of glass panels with dimensions changing for each floor following the sinuous shape of the building.
CityLife occupies 366 thousand Sq m altogether and it has seen rising over the years luxury houses, offices and shops. These latter are included in the CityLife shopping district, with 32 thousand Sq m of shops, restaurants, and cinema that will serve the workers of the area and the local residents as well as people from other parts of Milan that will easily reach the area through the lilac metro line. The shopping centre, inaugurated last November, registered a sold out already in the first days of opening, despite the brands not being all “premium”, as it was stated by the managing company Sonae Sierra. The apartments are 530 altogether, the project for urban vegetable garden and the urban park have also been completed, for a total investment of 2 billion euro.
Source: Il Sole 24 Ore
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi