Savings bank Cassa di Risparmio di Verona, 1913-1914

The “Studio Cantoni” architecture firm

Competition for the savings bank Cassa di Risparmio di Verona, 1913-1914

From 1913 to 1914 Antonio Sant’Elia worked with other colleagues, selected on the basis of their individual skills and areas of expertise, on the drafting of the plans the Cantoni firm intended to submit for the International Competition for the new headquarters of the savings bank Cassa di Risparmio di Verona in Piazza delle Erbe in that city. The announcement for bids was made on 15th June 1913, with the closing date set for April of the following year. Some of the drawings, including perspective views and cross-sections were attributed to Sant’Elia, while others, particularly floor plans, were by the architect Tancredi Motta. The perspective water colours were however the work of Leonardo Dudreville. The overall design bore the name Costruire and was characterised by a taste for the medieval, mostly likely in accordance with instructions from the senior partner Cantoni.
There were forty-seven competing designs with the winner being adjudged that called Can Grande as submitted by the Milani firm. The adjudicating board’s decision was not however shared either by the critics or by the public who were more inclined to favour the proposal from the Cantoni architects and that, known as Rinnovarsi o morire [renew or die], from the firm Fagiuoli and Greppi. P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: "SimSun","Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: "Mangal"; font-size: 12pt;