JHP to track Milan station strategy

Italian railway company CentoStazioni Spa has appointed London group JHP to create a masterplan and redesign the interiors of Milano Garibaldi Station.

The brief includes identifying circulation and flow patterns for station-users, establishing the long-term commercial strategy and design direction for the station and creating the optimum retail and catering mix. The consultancy will also design a wayfinding system and look at advertising for the station. Interiors work will include lighting and colours.

The consultancy will begin by designing and planning a feasibility study over a ten-week period with the final concepts in place by the end of August. The work on the station is expected to be completed by the end of 2003.

CentoStazioni Spa, which owns the station, wants to increase Milano Garibaldi’s revenue opportunities following its privatisation last year. The station, which is located in the north of Milan and handles regional and commuter services, will remain open while the work is completed.

‘The client has asked us to help it improve its revenues. The project is a complete replan so it can bring in new concessions and will be a radical overhaul in terms of architecture and interiors. [However], certain parts of the station, from an architecture point of view, cannot be changed,’ says JHP strategic director Steve Collis.

The consultancy will be paid a five-figure fee for the feasibility study, though the amount of money it receives is likely to rise over the course of the project, says Collis.

JHP, which was appointed to the project last week, won the work without a pitch.