It was decided to build a Maritime Station on the Ponte Andrea Doria as soon as
the Ponte dei Mille Maritime Station proved to be inadequate for the new generation
of great transatlantic liners, which required due to their size, longer stopovers and a suitable draught.
Accordingly a plan was drawn up in 1931 by the Technical Department of the Independent Consortium of the Genoa Harbour which was submitted to the judgment of the architect Luigi Vietti, at that time Director of the Board for the Preservation of Monuments.
Although he maintained the general layout that followed the functional arrangement of the previous station, with the quay level reserved for the third class and the upper floor for first and second class, Luigi Vietti (Novara 1903 – Milan 1999), a young exponent of the M.I.A.R. (Italian Movement for Rational Architecture), made some changes: he redesigned the main façade replacing the two large multi-section windows in the wall facing the entrance with two large plate glass panes, and he inserted concrete and glass panels in the cantilevered roof to give light to the areas below.
He also simplified the lines on the eastern side, eliminating the moulding around the windows, and finally he placed a large window at the head of the embarkation passageway and a spiral staircase, later destroyed during the war, which connected the disembarkation deck with the observation terrace.
Vietti supervised even the smallest details of the internal layout: from the door handles to the banisters, and from the lighting fixtures to the radiators.
Of the furniture designed by the architect, the curved lamellar walnut armchair is of particular interest, being a reinterpretation of a typical Alvar Aalto curved chair in beech wood. This model was presented by Vietti, in 1933, at the 5th Milan Triennale,
the same year in which the recently completed station was enthusiastically received in Italy and abroad by leading architecture magazines.

Thanks to numerous adaptations and enlargements carried out over the years both on the infrastructures and on the quay areas, today Ponte Andrea Doria is fitted with a modern, functional and well-equipped terminal. The total surface area of the Cruise Terminal of Ponte Andrea Doria is of about 10,000 m2, with spacious check-in areas, large customs halls for baggage collection, dedicated and separate routes for embarkation and disembarkation flows and terraces with mobile walkways for connection with the ship.
The terminal has adopted the most advanced solutions in terms of comfort and services for passengers, as well as being in line with all the security regulations.
The two berths, in terms of length and draught features, can host ships of the latest generation in complete safety and handle an overall movement of up to 10,000 passengers a day. With the moving of the adjacent Cesare Imperiale viaduct inland, ample parking areas have been created for the coaches and cars being used by cruise goers.
To facilitate the operativeness of the latest generation cruise ships, further extensions are in progress in the terminal that will increase the surface useable by passengers.