Targets palace

The Tergesteo building, as well as being an architectural monument of great value regulated by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, is for Trieste a memorial of important historic events for the city: created in 1830, it has also seen Italo Svevo and James Joyce among its clients. It is located between the Giuseppe Verdi opera house and Piazza della Borsa Vecchia, in the heart of the city center. The building presents a regular doubly symmetrical structure, approaching a matrix of four squares. The building, made up of four independent stair-lift blocks rising six stories above ground, is “united” on the ground floor by a “cross-shaped” commercial arcade area with a glass roof. Under the commission of the owners, Carlyle group (multinational property fund), the general plan and architectural executive was carried out, with particular attention given to the aspects of safeguarding the monumental and décor (commercial spaces in the arcade) aspects. At a later stage, the direction of works for the interior operations was handled, including structural, installation etc. works, lasting 24 months, managing the accounting of the works, both for the supply of materials and the execution of the works; also the role of health and safety was cared for both in the planning and execution stages. A veritable ‘turnkey’ project. In this context, all the complex regulatory aspects were implemented and followed, employing the administrative procedures to obtain authorization from the Trieste Council Building and Town Planning Area, from the Architectural and Landscape Heritage Authority, Fire Brigade, Health Department, etc. The operation was of a global restructuring, both from the structural point of view and from the distribution one and obviously the installation one (air conditioning, cabling, fire sensing, sound diffusion, security control, etc.) applying the most modern technologies for every sector with a total cost equal to 17 million euro. In particular, considering the characteristics of buildings of particular value, both historical and cultural, it was decided to work with the maximum respect not only for the pre-existing architectural elements but also for those more akin to structural elements, for example the floors - that were kept in wood-, the roofing - consolidated with an overhanging “jointed” structure and thus solid with the existing wood under-hanging structure. The same structure of the first floor was verified and consolidated, maintaining the characteristics of double-barrelled roof tiles in terracotta, while the under-carriage part of this structure decorated with bas-reliefs was subject to a careful restauration operation. Particular attention and effort was made to the theme of the arcade covering. In the 1960’s the original 19th century structure was removed. This was iron framed with overlaid glass panes with pitches inclined from the center towards the walled internal perimeter of the four buildings. It was replaced with a concrete glass vaulted cover. For these reasons, it was decided to reinstate the pre-existing cover with the same architectural and stylistic characteristics, adjusted, obviously, in respect of the current structural, fire prevention and health and safety regulations.