Chase Manhattan Bank Office Building

The reconstruction of a 19th-century building gave BBPR the opportunity to express themselves on the theme of the environment, so dear to Rogers. 

The building seems to accommodate the flow towards Piazza della Scala, harmoniously set between Figini and Pollini’s building in Via Hoepli, caged in a structural grid, and Caccia Dominioni’s ingenious design connected to the apse of San Fedele Church. 
The curved facade, faceted in flat surfaces, exhibits its steel structure, flaunting a refined design of load-bearing members and panels of pink glass and trachyte, a magmatic rock.

The nine-metre-high portico – required as the continuation of the adjacent one – was deemed overbearing by the architects in proportion to the total height of the building. They therefore proceeded to “lighten it” with the reference to portals and by splitting the supports. 

The top of the building is tapered by a penthouse that is set back and precedes the vaulted copper roof.

 Other significant buildings by Studio BBPR:

Restoration of the cloisters of San Simpliciano (with E. Radice Fossati), 1940, Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro; Via dei Chiostri
Workers Houses District in Via Alcuino, 1945, Via Alcuino; Via Bartolomeo Colleoni; Via Giovanni Gattamelata; Piazza Damiano Chiesa
Perego apartment and office building (with C. Monti), 1948, Piazza Sant Erasmo 5/7; Via Borgonuovo 4
IACPM Gratosoglio District, 1963-1967, Via dei Missaglia; Via C. Baroni; Via L. Basso; Via Saponaro
Offices and apartments building, 1965, Via Maddalena 9
Residential complex in Via dei Chiostri, 1968, Via Pontaccio 10; Via Ancona; Via Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro 10-12