Centro Direzionale Beni Stabili Taranto, Administrative complex in Taranto, Italy.
The Centro Direzionale Beni Stabili Taranto, also called BESTAT, is a office and residential complex of buildings arranged mirror-like around an imaginary irregular oval, enclosing Piazza Dante Alighieri above a vehicle underpass on the street of the same name. Tower A, 85 m high (105 m with antenna) and 21 floors, is the city's tallest building, in reinforced concrete with blue cladding between anodised aluminium false pillars; opposite, the 18-floor tower B shows exposed reinforced concrete with double pillars. The square is paved in Roman travertine.
Construction of this complex began in 1972 under architect Luigi Piccinnato's design and was completed by 1977. The project reflected the desire to modernize the city's administrative structures.
The civic library in the complex is named Domenico Acclavio, not Pietro, and holds over 160,000 volumes. Its collection includes four incunabula, books from the 16th to 18th centuries, and autograph works by Salvatore Quasimodo, the Nobel laureate born in Modica but raised in Messina and closely tied to Sicilian letters.
The building is located centrally in the city and is easily accessible on foot from other important places. The public areas on the ground floor are barrier-free and clearly marked for all services.
This complex originally housed the city's first radio and television stations. The signals could reach the entire province without needing extra amplifiers.
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