|
MILAN -- Hard hats are about to become
the biggest accessory in this capital of fashion.
Faced with the growing competition
from China's rapidly expanding fashion industry and Italy's
economic challenges, city urban planners and young business
leaders are moving forward with an estimated $1.3 billion
megacomplex called La Citta della Moda that will serve
as a monument to fashion.
The project, which will feature shops,
a hotel, an exhibition center for fashion shows, a fashion
museum, and a graduate-level fashion university, is expected
to ensure Milan's status as a style maker and give the
city and Italy an economic boost.
''It has the critical mass to become
a new center and is the largest project of its kind in
downtown Milan," said Manfredi Catella, managing
director of Hines Italia, the development firm promoting
the project. ''We hope Bostonians will come to Milan to
see a great example of modern excellence in design, architecture,
and urban development."
La Citta della Moda, Italian for city
of fashion, is the commercial component of the 62-acre
Garibaldi-Repubblica project, which will include city
council offices, sprawling gardens, and a piazza. Bidding
for the construction contracts to build La Citta della
Moda will begin in September, with the whole project scheduled
for completion in 2010.
Carlo Sangalli, president of the Milan
Chamber of Commerce, said La Citta della Moda will give
a much-needed boost to Milan tourism, which dropped 20
percent between 2003 and 2004 to just over 5 million visitors.
Milan, a city of 1.3 million, is the financial hub for
Italy but is overshadowed by other Italian cities such
as Venice with its canals and waterfront palaces that
attracted more than 12 million tourists in 2004, according
to the chambers of commerce for Milan and Venice.
''The City of Fashion will bring a tourism
that is connected with the shopping and the top designers
and things that are appreciated by our American guests,"
Sangalli said, adding that the project ''will make Milan
more of a global landmark."
Aside from economic benefits, the project's
tallest tower, expected to rise 30 stories, is on the
verge of altering the city's low-peak skyline and will
weave modern buildings into a downtown that is flagged
by the Duomo, the city's ancient gothic cathedral.
Milan's posh interior designs and chic
couture showrooms are encased by ancient Italian palazzos
stained by smog. The site of La Citta della Moda is currently
a weed-covered space hemmed by traffic congestion.
A whole neighborhood once existed on
the site, but after bombs during World War II fell on
Milan, its buildings were demolished. The original owners
of the property never rebuilt the land and it was only
two years ago that Hines finally persuaded all 12 families
to sell, explained Catella.
La Citta della Moda was envisioned by
the late designer Nicola Trussardi over a decade ago.
The Milanese fashion pioneer presented the city with an
idea for a fashion district that would showcase not only
the industry's creativity, but all the excellence in design
that Italy has to offer. After Trussardi died in a car
accident in 1999, his daughter Beatrice took over the
firm and has collaborated with one of Italy's biggest
development companies, Hines Italia, to carry out her
father's initiative.
Beatrice Trussardi, 32, is working with
the nonprofit element of the project: the school and the
museum. ''La Citta della Moda was conceived as a catalyst
for all the companies concerning the fashion world,"
said Trussardi, vice president of The Citta della Moda
Foundation. ''Fashion is only a part of it. It concerns
all the Italian excellence and creativity of design."
Catella, who spent two years working
at a Chicago real estate development firm, notes that
though it is called The City of Fashion and will have
over 100,000 square feet for high-end retail, it is not
intended as an American-inspired mall.
The aim, he said, is to ''create a stage
for Made in Italy and it could be a fantastic new center
of Milan that reflects our country and our culture."
Although the complex is intended to be
an Italian landmark, an American architectural firm, spearheaded
by Argentinian architect Cesar Pelli, will be designing
the project and rather than detailing the design with
traditional Italian accents, their aim is to make a worldwide
statement.
''We have approached this as we have
our projects all over the world," said project designer
Gregg E. Jones of Cesar Pelli. ''A good design doesn't
know borders."
|
