Palazzo Lombardia
From 2010 to 2011 this 161-metre tower was the tallest building in all of Italy — then another Milan skyscraper, the Unicredit Tower, took the record in 2011.
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Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (Henry N. Cobb, design partner) after winning an international competition in 2004, the 43-storey seat of the Lombardy regional government picked up both the 2012 International Architecture Award for best new global design and the 2012 Best Tall Building in Europe.
What to look for
- The full 43-storey, 161 m profile — taller than Milan's Pirelli Tower, which it briefly surpassed
- The Pei Cobb Freed & Partners massing and facade, the product of a 2004 international design competition
- Its position in the Centro Direzionale di Milano, Milan's CBD sitting north-west of the historic city centre
Located in Milan's Centro Direzionale (CBD), north-west of the city centre; the building is a working government office, so public interior access is limited.
Palazzo Lombardia is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Milan, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Milan pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Milan
- San Siro — Giuseppe Meazza StadiumTwo rival clubs, one ground: the 75,817-seat arena where Milan's football fault line runs.
- Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano)Construction started in 1386 and the final details were finished in 1965 — the city couldn't stop adding to it.
- La ScalaThe gallery gods who booed tenor Roberto Alagna off stage mid-Aida in 2006 still haunt the loggione — the cheapest seats in opera's most feared house.
- Santa Maria delle GrazieThe wall Leonardo painted on was sand-bagged against Allied bombs in 1943 — and held.
- Sforza CastleLeonardo da Vinci painted the ceiling here. Bramante did the walls down the hall.
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele IIThe direct ancestor of every enclosed shopping mall on earth — and there is still a worn hole in the floor where Milanese spin a heel for luck.