of the Palazzo Nuovo facing the church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli inserting pilasters of giant order, which appeared for the first time in the public buildings, a cornice with a baluster (another new element) and a tower. He added a portico façade to the Palazzo dei Conservatori and inserted giant order pilasters and a balustraded cornice with statues. Michelangelo also designed the steep ramp staircase of the Cordonata and the balustrade from which one overlooks the underlying Piazza d'Aracoeli at the base of Capitoline Hill. Palazzo Senatorio The Palazzo Senatorio (English: Senatorial palace) was built during the 13th and 14th centuries. It stands atop the Tabularium, which had once housed the archives of ancient Rome. Peperino blocks from the Tabularium were re-used in the left side of the palazzo and a corner of the belltower. It now houses the Roman city hall, after having been converted into a residence by Giovanni Battista Piranesi for the Senator Abbondio Rezzonico in the 18th century. Its double ramp of stairs was designed by Michelangelo. This double stairway to the palazzo replaced the old flight of steps and two-storied loggia, which had stood on the right side of the palazzo. The staircase cannot be seen solely in terms of the building to which it belongs but must be set in the context of the piazza as a whole. The steps, beginning at the center of each wing, move gently upward until they reach the inner corner, level off and recede to the main surface of the façade. They then continue an unbroken stateliness toward each other, converging on the central doorway of the second story. This interruption of the diagonal line and the brief inward change of direction both absorbs the central axis and links the two sides. The fountain in front of the staircase features the river gods of the Tiber and the Nile as well as Dea Roma. The upper part of the facade was designed by Michelangelo with colossal corinthian pilasters matching with the two other buildings. Its bell-tower was designed by Martino Longhi the Elder and built between 1578 and 1582. Its current facade was built by Giacomo della Porta and Girolamo Rainaldi. Porta did the completion of the façade of the Palazzo Senatorio, including the positioning, in the central niche, of a statue of Athena taken from the Palazzo dei Conservatori, which in 1593. was replaced with