Marking the 60 years of the Pirelli Skyscraper, the volume celebrates the history of the Pirellone, which began as the company's headquarters and later became the seat and symbol of the Lombardy Region.

On 4 April 1960, the Pirelli Skyscraper was inaugurated in Milan as the headquarters of the company of the same name, which at that time was writing one of the highest chapters in the rebirth that led the country to recover from the destruction of World War II and become a protagonist at the forefront of the international scene. The story of the Skyscraper, commissioned by Alberto and Piero Pirelli, conceived by the creative and innovative force of Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli, Pier Luigi Nervi, Arturo Danusso, Giuseppe Valtolina and Egidio Dell'Orto, lives again in the volume published by Marsilio Editori through the voices of the people who conceived, designed, built, lived in and experienced it as citizens of Milan for the last sixty years, celebrating the modernity of Lombard technology and industry, of the institution of the Region, which has been based here since 1978, and the cutting-edge urban planning of the capital.
The institutional prefaces by Attilio Fontana, Alessandro Fermi and Marco Tronchetti Provera are followed by essays in depth on economic and social history and architecture, by Antonio Calabrò, Alessandro Colombo and Laura Riboldi, and an interview with Piero Bassetti, first president of Lombardy region.
A timeline traces over sixty years of the history of the city, its culture, its businesses and its institutions, in the context of the greater national and international history, with a look at the future of the metropolis. The heart of the book consists of a rich body of images: photographs, illustrations and other original documents from the Historical Archives of the Pirelli Foundation and the Lombardy Region; photographs and journalism by masters such as the photographer Arno Hammacher, Aldo Ballo, Giorgio Calcagni, De Paoli, Paolo Monti, Dino Sala, and by historic agencies such as Publifoto; advertising campaigns by internationally renowned designers such as Lora Lamm, Riccardo Manzi, Alessandro Mendini, Bruno Munari, Bob Noorda, Pino Tovaglia, Massimo Vignelli, protagonists of the cultural and artistic ferment in Milan in the sixties.
Today, the skyscraper remains among the landmarks of a metropolis that is committed to promoting sustainable, environmental and social development. In reconstructing its history, ten voices were heard, those of Piero Bassetti, Eva Cantarella, Alessandro Fermi, Attilio Fontana, Giuseppe Guzzetti, Uliano Lucas, Carlo Ratti, Gianfelice Rocca, Andrée Ruth Shammah and Marco Tronchetti Provera, women and men from the worlds of politics, culture and the economy. Between memories and forecasts, their words reveal the prospects of a region that has experienced intensely troubled periods and, despite everything, has always succeeded in leveraging its ability to dream, hope, plan and build. To work.
In this way the book documents the first phase of industrialisation, the company and modernity, the construction and architecture of the building, then brings to life the interiors, design and work in the skyscraper. And again: Milan on the move, culture and fashion in the sixties and seventies, the birth of the regions, the establishment of the Lombardy Region and the Regional Council and the activity of the institution, to close with the prospects for the future , between memory and the ability to design the cities of tomorrow.