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BBC: New Morphosis tower in Paris to rival Eiffel Tower

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Paris skyscraper to rival tower

The new Lighthouse skyscraper will be almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower
Paris has chosen an American architect to build the French capital's tallest new building since the Eiffel Tower in the 19th Century.
The new curving skyscraper will be the centrepiece of a redevelopment project in the north-west of Paris.

Thom Mayne's Los Angeles-based company Morphosis beat off rivals as prestigious as the UK's Norman Foster and France's Jean Nouvel.

Building regulations have kept tall buildings out of Paris for 30 years.

One notable exception is the Tour Montparnasse which rises 180 metres (590 ft) in the south-west of the capital.

An international jury announced the winner, following a contest organised by French property group Unibail as part of a project to revamp La Defense business district.

The Paris city government opposes plans for a new skyscraper in the district, but the project is backed by French public body EPAD, which is in charge of the district's wider renovation, AFP news agency reports.

Ecobuilding

At 300 metres (990 ft), the Lighthouse will come a close second to the Eiffel Tower, which rises to 324 metres.

PARIS TALL STRUCTURES
Eiffel Tower: 324 metres
The Lighthouse: 300 metres
Montparnasse: 180 metres

It is due to be completed in 2012 and will cost an estimated 800m euros ($1.05bn) to build.

Its twin structure will combine a rectangular base with a soaring, organic-shaped tower, capped by a field of wind turbines.

Unibail described the project as an "architectural event... that pays tribute to the major buildings in La Defense - the CNIT and the Great Arch".

Last year, Thom Mayne was awarded the Pritzker prize, the world's top architecture award.

"It's about an icon, and one of the major buildings in Paris," he said of the winning project.

He added the building would be "a prototype for a green building" with a wind farm generating its own heating and a "double skin" of steel and glass to a self-cooling mechanism for the hotter months.

His works include Los Angeles' new mass transit hub, the Taipei Design Centre and Seoul's Sun Tower.
 
Cool- a big boy for Paris- it will the tallest in Europe I think..? Montparnasse is actually 689 feet according to Emporis.
 
Awesome! Reminds me of a planarian flatworm I did a drawing of in Biology class when I was thirteen. This exceeds my wildest dreams.
 
If only Bay Adelaide could have been something different like that.
 
Indeed. A prime site like that deserved a prime set of buildings, something innovative and beautiful.
 
I think it looks weird and ugly (atleast from that render), glad this isn't taking the title as the tallest in Paris.

It looks like something wrapped in fabric :rolleyes
 
Building Babel said:
Indeed. A prime site like that deserved a prime set of buildings, something innovative and beautiful.

<sarcasm>
Why should Bay-Adelaide look beautiful? It's functional for its targeted audience.
</sarcasm>

That comment coming from somebody who thinks that the 4SC is beautiful inside and serves its purpose for opera patrons.
The 4SC also had the responsibility to the cityscape but didn't.

Unfortunately, Toronto still hasn't learned that lesson in time for the ongoing condo and office tower boom. Hopefully the Hummingbird Centre condo will change mentalities in time to fit in the current boom.
 
Nice. It reminds me of a Memphis lounge chair from the Eighties. Practical Toronto side of me wonders about cost of windowwashing a weird shape like that though.
 
^ Dirt resistant windows. I'm not intimately familiar with the technology, but there are windows with a coating that prevents dirt from adhering to windows and dust and other debris are easily washed off with rain water.

The $1B price tag on this could probably buy that tech.
 
I HATE IT!

It also smacks against the Mayor's new vision for the city of Paris, which includes keeping the height restriction in place and focusing more on scale and quality of new buildings.

What a shame.

Louroz
 
"If only Bay Adelaide could have been something different like that."

That looks like it's surrounded by a 12 acre plaza - B/A is not.
 
It also smacks against the Mayor's new vision for the city of Paris, which includes keeping the height restriction in place and focusing more on scale and quality of new buildings.

Except that La Defense is not in the city of Paris. It's on the other side of the Peripherique...
 
And the Mayor's 'vision' for that area consists of new tall 'iconic' buildings. This area has nothing to do with height restrictions in Paris proper.
 

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