Velasca Tower

The tower with braces

Velasca Tower
Piazza Velasca, 3/5

The Velasca Tower, named by the citizens of Milano as the "tower with braces", is one of Milano’s most iconic skyscrapers and it proudly stands among the most imposing peaks of the city.

Since it is 106m high, it gives a nod to the Duomo, the Castello Sforzesco, the most modern tower blocks of Isola, Garibaldi and City Life. Brutalist, rationalist, neoliberty. Its particular mushroom shape stems from the intention to separate the offices from the living units, located in the upper block, and from the desire to touch the sky that Milano offers in its presence. And so it also resembles a medieval tower, which contains the architectural cues of the nineteenth century and those of the century that came after its construction.

 

Being a cult place in Milano, the Velasca Tower was a movie set and a much talked about location, described through the words of numerous writers and journalists. In Dino Risi’s Il Vedovo (1959), there is a famous scene, in which the actor Alberto Sordi uses the reception telephone on the ground floor. in Dino Buzzati’s novel  A love (Un Amore), the tower provides a silent background in the city centre, never a protagonist but always present - it is easy for the architect Antonio Dorigo, the main character, to cross it during his walks. During the past Design Weeks, more than one designer has chosen to illuminate the twenty-six floors with neon lights on the outside, letting passers-by walk with their noses up.

Public transport

Public transport:

UNDERGROUND

M3 - Missori stop

 

TRAM

12, 19, 24

 

BUS

73

What's nearby

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