The Pirelli Tower (in Italian Grattacielo Pirelli), known colloquially as Pirellone,[1]​ is a building in Milan, Italy, headquarters of the Regional Council of Lombardy.[1]​ It is located in the "quartiere Centrale" of the district "zone 2"), in front of Milan Central Station.[2]​.

Between 1958 and 1966, it held the record for the tallest building in the European Economic Community, until the construction of the "Tour du Midi "South Tower (Brussels)") in Brussels, Belgium.

In 1950, Alberto Pirelli", president of the Pirelli company, requested that a skyscraper be built on the land occupied by the city's first factory. The project was carried out by the architect Gio Ponti, with the assistance of Pier Luigi Nervi, Alberto Rosselli, Antonio Fornaroli"), Giuseppe Valtolina"), Egidio Dell'Orto") and Arturo Danusso").

It has a height of 127 meters, which made it the tallest structure in the city until 2009 (when Palazzo Lombardia "Palazzo Lombardia (Milan)" was built), and is made of concrete (approximately 60,000 tons were used).[1] Once completed, in 1960, it became one of the symbols of Milan and the national economic renaissance. In 1978, the company sold the building to the government of the Lombardy region and today it houses the main offices of the regional government.[1] Art historian Hasan-Uddin Khan called it "one of the most elegant skyscrapers in the world."

The top floor, the 31st, can be visited from time to time and functions as a belvedere "Belvedere (architecture)"): from there there is a magnificent panorama of almost the entire Padana plain.

The building was hit by a single-engine light plane, a Swiss Rockwell Commander 112, on April 18, 2002, whose original route was from Locarno to Milan.[3]​ The plane was low on fuel, and Linate airport was preparing an emergency landing before the collision, but the pilot suddenly diverted and flew right in the direction of the building.[3]​ He and two lawyers died in the accident.[3]​ The pilot, a Swiss man, had problems with the police[4]​ and the hypothesis of suicide is not ruled out.[5]​.

• - Annex: Tallest buildings in Italy.

• - Annex: Tallest buildings in Milan.

• - Lombardy Region.

• - Diagram of the skyscraper.

• - Gio Ponti Archived August 22, 2017 at the Wayback Machine.