feda

The Italian all-news channel SkyTg24 has reported that the mayor of Venice has signed a deal with a renowned architect , whose project is to build a skyscraper in Venice .The work should start in 2014, skytg24 reports.
Of course skyscrapers are not new to Italy. Milan has got many skyscrapers, the most famous of which - Grattacielo Pirelli alias Pirellone- was built in 1958 and the highest (Palazzo Lombardia ) was built in 2010 ( and some new skyscrapers are being built in the city and should be completed before the Milan 2015 Expo ) Naples also has skyscrapers and so does Turin.
Some time ago there were talks about building skyscrapers around Rome , but the idea was not welcomed by many ( the skyscrapers would have been higher than the St Peters Dome and would have changed the Rome skyline altogether.
The new skyscraper in London, however (which is now the highest in the UK and Europe) was designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piani.
As far as the skyscraper which is to be built in Venice starting from 2014 is concerned, skytg24 says that it will host hotels, restaurants as well as fashion events and that it will offer a view on the whole city and Laguna.
I was a bit startled by the news because , while skyscrapers are absoultely normal in Milan, it's a bit weird to me that there should be one in Venice, of all places, what do you think ?It would be interesting to listen to the opinion of Fodorites. (I'm Italian,so I don't count)

Dukey1

Perhaps Venice decided it needed yet another leaning tower; there are several there already but this new one would be pretty spectacular

Maggie101

Sad

uhoh_busted

They'll need an exceptionally talented team of structural engineers to pull that off.

flanneruk

Wait a minute.

This isn't in what we'd all call Venice: it's in what's currently a petrochemical complex in one of Italy's most hideous industrial zones. Most reports are that it's the President of the Veneto Regional Council - not the successor to centuries of Doges - who's agreed to it.

I can't judge the idea, because it's impossible to see an honest attempt to show its effect on skylines visible from the historic core of the main island.

But no region that's allowed Mestre to be built can claim any kind of track record for concern with conservation. Nor, if we're honest, have the horrors of the Veneto's industry done much to reduce the quality of historic Venice.

If the poster has a reference to what we might see from Rialto or St Mark's Square, we might be in a better position to comment. But I honestly can't get worried about what I read at http://www.italianostra-venezia.org/...%3D%3D&lang=it

We wouldn't allow it where I live. But Italians have put up far worse.

bilboburgler

I guess at least they got permission to build it before they built it rather than the usual way in Italy.

Bedar

In London the Shard is just plain UGLY. At least the Gerkin (or as we call it, the Easter Egg) is amusing and distinctive allowing one pinpoint a location in relation to it. No, no, no, no skyscraper in Venice, please.

SeattleMichael

Here's a link that shows that the skyscraper would not be built on the islands of Venice but on the mainland in Marghera. http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/b...-1226432828699

You can see the islands of Venice in the background. We'll see whether this actually gets going, given the state of the economy in Europe and Italy in particular.

PalenQ

The skyscraper can only IMO make Mestre look better!

feda

SeattleMichael thanks, yes it's very much better so( I mean it's better that the skyscraper won't be not seen from Venice itself) I share the view of the fodorites who commentend on this.

ParadiseLost

I didn't believe this post but the 1st thing I thought of was "What a great excuse 19thC Guy de Maupassant gave people as a reason to stay in the skyscraper hotel . Regards, Walter

"Guy de Maupassant chose to eat at the restaurant up the Eiffel tower (declaring that this was the only place in Paris he could not see the structure!)."
------------------------------------------
"Who opposed the building of the Eiffel Tower and considered it an eyesore?
Many outraged French intellectuals, including Charles Gounod, Charles Garnier and Alexandre Dumas vigorously protested against the project and tried, through the media, to oppose the tower's construction.
The press published outraged critics describing the Eiffel Tower as a "useless monstrosity."

feda

Nice anecdote, Paradiselost. Anyway we have been pretty reassured that the skyscraper is not going to be seen from the Laguna itself, if it ever is constructed.

ParadiseLost

Thanks feda, and too clarify I wasn't calling into question your actual post it was what I first thought when I saw the title and imagined a skyscraper actually *in* Venice .

Thanks for reporting what you heard (I would have done the same thing) and it did make a very interesting visual for everyone .
Regards, Walter

Echnaton

Although it not in the old town, it will be a visual pollution, because it will spoil the horizon which is visible from Venice.

The saddest thing is that it is a fashion designer - Pierre Cardin - who is the initiator of this building.

Probably a matter of senile self-adulation.

flanneruk

" it will be a visual pollution, because it will spoil the horizon which is visible from Venice."

You have evidence for this?

Even the poster who wrote the lying headline (and made the grossly misleading assertion that the "project is to build a skyscraper in Venice) now claims you're wrong.