Paris has banned skyscrapers for more than 30 years, but the “Phare” (Lighthouse) tower will soon become its tallest commercial building and loftiest construction since the Eiffel tower was inaugurated in 1889.
The 300m high office tower, designed by the Californian architect Thom Mayne, will be the first building to approach Gustav Eiffel’s tower.
At a cost of €900m, the building, which will offer 130 000 square metres of office space, is due to be completed in 2012. But just as the Eiffel tower was initially described by the author Guy de Maupassant as “an odious tower of extreme bad taste”, the French capital is braced for the backlash.
The newspaper Le Monde warned on Monday that a “hatred for concrete” and fear of high buildings was common among Parisians still traumatised by the 210m-tall 1970s monstrosity, Tour Montparnasse.
According to the press, the building will have wind turbines on its roof. But a close inspection of the artist’s impression reveals something completely different:
What’s that growth?
