The company, which took part in the competitive procedure held by the Municipality, will handle the animation, maintenance and security/surveillance of the park
Milan, 22 June 2019 – It will be COIMA SGR Spa (as sponsor), through Fondazione Riccardo Catella (as manager) that will handle, for the next 10 years – through an integrated team covering the relevant competences – the safety, maintenance and creation of a cultural animation program for the Park Biblioteca degli Alberi – the latter two services in part already guaranteed by COIMA since the park’s inauguration last October. The Municipality of Milan has signed an agreement with the company, which had submitted a sponsorship proposal that was later turned into a competitive procedure and then subjected to a subsequent negotiation phase.
“Through this agreement, we guarantee, at no cost to the public coffers, a high quality of maintenance and management of a park that in just a few short months has entered the hearts of Milanese and tourists alike” remarks the assessor of Urban Planning and Green Areas, Pierfrancesco Maran. Biblioteca degli Alberi is a novelty when considered within the panorama of the city’s parks, not just because of the clear complexity of its design that renders it particularly evocative and appreciated, but also because it constitutes the first example of a large green area that is not confined by fences. It is therefore essential that the care and surveillance of the park, along with its animation, be guaranteed at the very maximum levels, and we are convinced that COIMA and the Foundation will be capable of offering an optimal standard. Agreements like this one, more generally, enable us to ensure the high-quality management for new parks, which are particularly costly, and to focus public resources on those parks for which it is difficult to find partners and investors".
“Italy and the rest of the world are traversing a historic moment of sweeping changes that are providing us an opportunity to start from scratch, right from our core culture and ethics.” remarks Manfredi Catella, Founder and Managing Director of COIMA SGR -. The country needs Italian companies with people who are ready to take on challenges with commitment and passion in order to help our economy bounce back. It is with this spirit that we have undertaken the commitment to manage a symbolic public space where the community may come together, also to express and share values and new models of behavior. Biblioteca degli Alberi is becoming a pilot project, a synthesis of nature and community and it is precisely from here that our proposal to the Municipality and the residents of Milan to develop the largest green infrastructure at the national and international level will start to take shape by the end of the year”.
Fondazione Riccardo Catella, after putting together a dedicated team of qualified professionals, undertakes, on behalf of COIMA, to carry out maintenance activities aimed at the preservation of the green areas and the walkways within the park, ensuring high quality standards. The sponsor may carry out monitoring on physical, environmental or climatic data using specialized new generation instrumentation. The Foundation will also handle the park’s surveillance, through a mobile surveillance/security service, also using the Video-surveillance System that will be realized in the future by the Municipality. The video cameras will be connected to the Operational Headquarters of the Local Police, which may use them to perform activities aimed at preventing and repressing possible criminal offenses. The sponsor and the company engaged to perform the security services shall use solely images that will not allow for the identification of the persons filmed, but may be used just for studies on visitors flows to the park.
Fondazione Riccardo Catella will also organize within the park a cultural animation program, to be agreed upon with the Municipality, aimed at optimizing the botanical heritage and offering citizens cultural experiences and raising their awareness on green areas, making it a location that is vibrantly alive and attractive. In particular, cultural, musical, sports and social-aggregative initiatives may be organized, including of a commercial nature and also including the serving of food and beverages, including through the installation of mobile structures. The sponsor may construct a number of structures and a Temporary Pavilion to host activities, events and initiatives, as well as a food service area with restrooms. The Sponsor has also offered to implement a WiFI system in order to ensure a high standard of use for users of the park.
The project envisaging the maintenance and animation of Biblioteca degli Alberi will be extended to cover a number of pedestrian areas located outside the green area (approximately 3,500 sqm), called “Events Spaces”, which, in exchange for an annual fee, will be granted to the sponsor for its exclusive use. In this manner, on the one hand, the exploitation of green areas of the park will be reduced while, on the other, in line with the non-profit model of the plan, possibilities for revenues needed by the sponsor to cover ordinary and extraordinary maintenance expenses will be expanded, along with the prestige and quality of the educational animation program, which will pursue social, sports-oriented and aggregative aims.
The park, designed by the firm Inside Outside|Petra Blaisse of Amsterdam, was realized by COIMA in June 2015. On behalf of the Municipality of Milan, the Company took over the implementation of the works as an intervention to be completed as part of the wider Porta Nuova urban project.
