milan design week cocktail with a view at excelsior hotel gallia

milan design week kicked-off at the excelsior hotel gallia, where designboom and the luxury collection waved its party flag from a grand belle-epoque building of 1932 — recently restored and refurbished by studio marco piva. during one of the most glamorous moments on the international events calendar, what better way to spend a beautiful late evening than on the terrace of a grand palazzo — the stunning location of the excelsior hotel gallia.

on tuesday april 12th, designboom and the luxury collection put together a cocktail party for all designboom contributors, friends from the worlds of art, architecture and design. guests enjoyed drinks (a delicious selection of wet aperitifs – the best cocktails!), delicacies served in miniature, conversation, spring weather, music and an overwhelming panoramic view of the city by night.

designboom is the first online design magazine, established in 1999. during our 17-year-long activity, we made a lot of friends and many designers attended, we take this opportunity to thank you all for joining us in this celebration. to name a few — antonio arico, daniel arsham and alex mustonen of snarkitecture, sam baron of fabrica, farg and blanche, jaime hayon, karim rashid studio, claesson koivisto rune, nigel coates, alain gilles, martino gamper, richard hutten, toyo ito, giulio iacchetti, defne koz, arik levy, lissoni studio, pearson lloyd, andrea maffei, stefano and elisa giovannoni, william sawaya and paolo moroni, carlo ratti, barber osgerby studio, marco piva, satyendra pakhalé, lorenzo palmieri, icaro rota, matteo thun studio, irene kronenberg and alon baranowitz, nika zupanc, jin kuramoto, xavier lust, fornasetti studio…

manufacturers (baccarat, ceasarstone, gandia blasco, gufram, hermes, kvadrat, laufen, pepsico, sancal, sisecam, vitra…), PR agencies and members from the italian and international press. cyril zammit of dubai design fair, jovan and vesna jelovac of belgrade design week, salone del mobile, karen kang of IDS toronto and shauna levy of designexchange, kenji kawasaki of tokyo design week, beatrice leanza of beijing design week, and kristian slattberg of stockholm furniture fair…

thank you for coming and sharing this special time with us!

the terrazza gallia is milan’s new place for mixology. the unique viewpoint over milan caters for all weather conditions, providing a roof cover, outdoor heating and a glamorous indoor bar lounge.

the excelsior hotel gallia, dating back to 1932, offers a new perspective of the milan’s central railway station from the same historic period (1931), characterised by a blend of architecture styles, particularly the liberty and art deco styles, adorned with numerous sculptures. from the terrace, you can also see a close-up of gio ponti’s most famous architectural work, the pirelli tower (1958). and from a distance: the regione lombardia tower (2010) by pei cobb freed & partners, the asymmetrical unicredit tower (2012, by cesar pelli) and the diamond tower with its irregular geometry (2012) by lee polisano of kohn pedersen fox…

milan central station
image © designboom

the construction of the hotel, which was designed and built by giuseppe laveni and aldo avati, was finished in 1927, when, instead of the present day piazza duca d’aosta, today headquarters to the central station, there was simply countryside and the outskirts of milan. both the hotel and the central station should have been inaugurated simultaneously, however delays with the monumental construction of the railway, saw the hotel open its doors well before. as a result, this luxurious hotel with its elegant liberty-style facade – today still under the protection of the italian institute of fine arts – stood out in all its majestic splendour.

thank you excelsior gallia hotel for your kind collaboration and for hosting that special night.

the excelsior hotel gallia is a luxury collection hotel. the luxury collection is an ensemble of more than 75 of the world’s finest hotels and resorts in more than 30 countries. explore the history of the luxury collection brand.

even more glam, follow designboom’s instagram coverage of the design world’s biggest event, milan.design.week

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