The sea front in Salerno is the largest urban intervention that prefigures the future of the city. Since, in the 90s of the last century, the architect Bohigas imagined the development of the city in services and tourism, he decided that the waterfront should become the hub of the new urban design.
The Piazza della Liberta represents the point of departure of the interventions: the relationship with the Lungomare, the connection with the tourist and commercial port and the marine station, the rehabilitation of a degraded harbour area close to the Villa Comunale and therefore with the entrance to the city are the elements that characterized the design of this place of the new Salerno.
The square has as its backdrop the Crescent, a semicircle building of great scenic impact, with residential purposes. The intervention was designed by the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofil, and aims to recover the visual and functional relationship with the sea, generating, as said, the surrounding environment and bringing in contact the sea front with the nearby architectural presences – City Palace, Villa Comunale, Teatro Verdi – and the historical center not far away.
The building is semicircular overlooking the huge square, slightly raised compared to the surrounding level, and has a walk that connects the area of Santa Teresa on the Lungomare with the port and the Maritime Station.
A system of parking, services, commercial environments, completes the whole area functionally.