Pirelli Tower
Gio Ponti tapered it to two sharp points in 1958 — and the European skyscraper had a new vocabulary.
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Alberto Pirelli commissioned this 127 m, 32-storey tower on the site of the company's original factory as Italy's postwar economy surged. Architect Gio Ponti and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi made it among the first skyscrapers anywhere to abandon the standard block form. It directly influenced the Pan Am Building in New York. Architectural historian Hasan-Uddin Khan called it "one of the most elegant tall buildings in the world."
What to look for
- The tapered ends that narrow to sharp points instead of flat corners — the detail that broke the block-form convention
- The curtain wall glass facade stretched over a structural skeleton, so the skin carries no load
- Its position on a pentagonal plot, originally designed to be framed by low-lying buildings on all sides
The Lombardy regional government has owned the building since 1978; it is a working office building best viewed from street level.
Pirelli Tower 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.