Torre Velasca is a skyscraper of the brutalist architecture which is located south of the Duomo, in the homonymous square that is dedicated to Juan Fernández de Velasco and Tovar. It was projected and built between 1956 and 1958 by a group of the most famous architects of the time, the BBPR. It stands where a residential area once was located that was destroyed by a bomb in 1943, which, together with its characteristic mushroom shape, makes it one of the most famous symbols of Milan.
The Tower is 106 meters high and has 26 floors. The first 18 floors have offices and businesses, while the successive ones are occupied by private apartments, exactly as happened in the medieval towers, which its mushroom shape wants to evoke: On the first floors workshops, laboratories and warehouses, and on the upper floors the houses.
The mushroom shape is due to the fact that the base of the last floors is wider and externally it is supported by beams, so the Milanese named it "grattacielo delle giarrettiere" (skyscrapers of the garters).
Via/ edilone.it
Photos via Flickr / Photo 1, Photo 2