Until about forty years ago in Bari, the twelve-story building located at the corner of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Cavour was known to everyone as “the Motta skyscraper”. At the top of it there was the big – and a little garish – neon sign of the famous Milan candy brand, which had started a large bar and a restaurant on the building ground floor and first floor, real reference points for Bari citizens.

The “skyscraper” was built in the late Fifties on the ruins of a two-story building that hosted a historic local coffee brand. Although described as the symbol of the “banditesche imprese di speculazione edilizia” that spoilt the Murat district in Bari, it had become an urban point of reference (B. Zevi, Cronache di architettura).

When the Motta sign was removed and the first two floors of the building, after having been abandoned for decades, were taken over by a well-known American fast food restaurant multinational, a lot of people regretted the garish neon light that used to light up the Murat district nights with its cold red light.