The long history of Nestlé began with the development of powdered-milk baby food. In 1867, Henri Nestlé founded the concern in the small Swiss town of Vevey. Roughly 90 years later, the company headquarters were established on the north-east shore of Lake Geneva. The building, now protected by conservation order, is a masterpiece by the Swiss architect Jean Tschumi, who was known for his sculptural formal language. The ensemble was completed in 1960 in collaboration with the structural engineer Alexandre Sarrasin. The slender, raking concrete piers in front of the set-back ground floor volume consistently follow the facade lines of the Y-shaped layout. At the point of intersection of the three tracts is a spiral staircase of monumental yet elegant proportions. In the 1980s, an extension was undertaken by the Basle architect Martin Burckhardt, and since then, the entire complex has been refurbished by Richter and Dahl Rocha. Among the measures they imple-mented was the addition of a new, single-flight staircase, which connects the fifth floor – the executive level – with the top storey, the so-called “communications level”. A new roof light over the staircase also allows daylight to penetrate into the interior.