CityLife wins the international call for tenders

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Milano, 2nd July 2004 – The CityLife consortium (Generali Properties S.p.A., consortium representative, RAS S.p.A., Immobiliare Lombarda S.p.A., Lamaro Appalti S.p.A., Grupo Lar Desarrollos Residentiales - Designers: Arata Isozaki, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Pier Paolo Maggiora) won the international call for tenders concerning the redevelopment of the Fiera Milano city complex. The news was disclosed this morning by Fondazione Fiera Milano, a private corporate entity which is at the helm of the transformation project of the Milan exhibition system, after opening the envelopes containing the offers made by the shortlisted competitors.

Cordata Citylife - il vincitore

The offer that allowed CityLife to win the tender amounted to 523 million euros,more than 8 percent higher than the second best offer. The other two groups put on the shortlist on 28th June were:

  • Pirelli Real Estate S.p.A. (consortium representative), Vianini Lavori S.p.A., Roma Ovest Costruzioni S.p.A., Unicredit Real Estate S.p.A.
  • Designer: RPBW - Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
  • Risanamento S.p.A. (consortium representative), IPI S.p.A., Fiat Engineering S.p.A. (now Maire Engineering), Astaldi S.p.A., Chelsfield, Langdale Consulting.

Designers: Foster & Partners, Frank O. Gehry, Rafael Moneo, Cino Zucchi, Richard Burdett, URB.A.M. S.r.l.

The area involved covers 255,000 square metres of the approximately 440,000 square metres occupied by the Fiera Milano Exhibition Centre.

The preliminary agreementof sale will be signed on 30 July 2004 and the area will be handed over to the winner in the first quarter of 2006. The entire project must be completed by the first quarter of 2014.

The area will be handed over to the CityLife consortium complete with a Integrated Action Plan approved by the City Council of Milan. Fondazione Fiera Milano, the owner of the land, guarantees that the purchaser may carry out all the construction work envisaged by the winning project.

First of all – declared Luigi Roth, chairman of Fondazione Fiera Milano – I would like to congratulate the winner, the CityLife consortium - Generali Properties S.p.A. (consortium representative), RAS S.p.A., Progestim S.p.A., Lamaro Appalti S.p.A., Grupo Lar Desarrollos Residentiales. Designers: Arata Isozaki, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Pier Paolo Maggiora - who are due to leave a permanent mark on the architecture of our city. Seeing through a tender like this has been an extraordinary and totally unique experience. It was unique for various reasons: the method we chose to use, the people who worked with us and the constant support of all the institutions involved. But, first and foremost, it was unique for the extremely high level of professionalism shown by all the competitors for the way they developed and presented their projects, all of which were worthy of great attention and, if it had been at all possible, of winning.

According to the Mayor of Milan, Gabriele Albertini, the result of the Fiera tender is further proof of the positive period that Milan is currently enjoying: almost a town-planning and architectural Renaissance. The city has earned the trust and commitment of investors, businessmen and architects of international standing.

The President of Lombardia Regional Government, Roberto Formigoni, declared that the competition for the redevelopment of the city pole of Fiera Milano is typical of the regional model of a virtuous relationship between the public and private sectors. The winning project and all the projects on the shortlist give a great drive to the city in terms of “beauty” and quality of life.

The Tender Committee and the 11 experts

The shortlist, approved by the General Council of Fondazione Fiera Milano on 28th June, was selected by a special Tender Committee – comprising the Board of Directors of Sviluppo Sistema Fiera (Claudio Artusi, Marcello Botta, Giorgio Montigelli, Rodrigo Rodriquez, Luigi Roth ) with the co-operation of Lazard & C. Real Estate as advisor and the assistance of representatives of the Milan City Council and the Lombardia Regional Government. The Committee was assisted in its analysis by a multidisciplinary group of experts comprising:

  • Kenneth Frampton, professor of architecture at Columbia University. Skill sector: architecture
  • Cristophe Girot, Professor of landscape architecture at the Federal Technical University of Zurich. Skill sector: landscape architecture
  • Guido Martinotti, Professor of urban sociology at the University of Milan – Bicocca. Skill sector: sociology
  • Gaetano Morazzoni, Corridor 5 Promotion Committee consultant. Skill sector: large infrastructures
  • Lorenzo Ornaghi, Dean of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan. Skill sector: management of interest networks
  • Bianca Alessandra Pinto, Superintendent of the National Modern Art Gallery in Rome. Skill sector: aesthetics
  • Marco Angelo Romano, Professor of town-planning and expert in urban aesthetics at the faculty of architecture of the University of Genoa. Skills sector: town-planning
  • Giorgio Rumi, historian and member of the Board of Directors of Fondazione Balzan and Veneranda Fabbrica of Milan Cathedral. Skill sector: history
  • Lanfranco Senn, professor of regional and urban economy at Università commerciale Luigi Bocconi of Milan. Skill sector: urban economy
  • Deyan Sudijc critic, exhibition organiser and magazine editor; in 2002 he directed the Venice Biennial Exhibition. Skill sector: architecture
  • Bernhard Winkler is one of the founders and former teacher and director of the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. Skill sector: mobility

Sviluppo Sistema Fiera chose the experts according to the following three criteria:

  • recognised international prestige
  • knowledge of Milan, Lombardia and, more generally, Italy
  • professional versatility and multidisciplinarity.

The Tender Committee then independently decided the shortlist on the basis of the guidelines used for the international tender:

  • the emblematic nature of the project;
  • the liveability of the area;
  • the architectural and environmental quality of the projects;
  • construction times.

The shortlist comprised the three projects that best interpreted the form and contents of the guidelines drawn up by the customer. All the five projects that had participated in the tender were of very high quality and revealed the considerable amount of business and design skills that had gone into their development.

The projects on the shortlist were given an expense refund of 500,000 euros while the others each received 50,000 euros.

During the next few days, the model of the winning project will be on show at the Ottagono in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and then at the “Domodossola” railway stationof Ferrovie Nord Milano.

From 22nd September to 24th October, all the projects will be on show at the Milan Triennial Building.