The Tour Triangle Will Change the Parisian Skyline

Unlike New York City, where skyscrapers stand tall and cast shadows over the surrounding buildings, Paris has remained fairly tall-tower free. But on June 30, a 590-foot tall building proposal by famed Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron was approved, marking the end of a decades-long ban on skyscrapers.

The appropriately named Tour Triangle will be the first skyscraper erected since the reviled Tour Montparnasse was completed in 1973. Because of the general outrage over that very rectangular tower, a 1977 ruling declared that no building in Paris' city center could be over 37 meters— or about 120 feet. Since then, skyscraper projects haven’t made it outside La Défense, the business district west of Paris.

Plans for the Triangle were unveiled in 2008, but a 2014 city council vote struck down the construction proposal. The same committee overturned their original decision after Paris' mayor, Anne Hidalgo, declared that the 2014 voting process was invalid.

The Triangle—which will be located in the 15^th arrondissement—will be 42 stories tall, have 120 four-star hotel rooms, and have over 750,000 square feet of office space. The bottom floor of the tower will also house restaurants and shops open to the general public.

A statement from the architects explained that the building’s triangular design "means that it does not cast shadows on adjacent buildings." Even at 590 feet, the tower will still be shorter than the Eiffel Tower (986 feet) and the Tour Montparnasse (689 feet).

Herzog and de Meuron are the architects behind a number of innovative projects including London’s Tate Modern, the "parking experience" 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, and, in collaboration with Ai Weiwei, the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing.

All photos courtesy of the Tour Triangle Facebook page. 

[h/t Gizmodo]