Philip Chariol Bracelet

Enchanted La Defense - 3rd season - giant with feet of clay ...?

In 1993, La Defense is experiencing its second crisis. It was not until 1997 the rebound, evidenced by the construction of towers Coeur Defense, delivered in 2001 by architect Jean Paul Viguier , then the largest such project built in Europe. Heart Defence consists of two towers (161m high) and three 40-storey buildings of 8 floors.

The two towers, connected as Siamese on their height, are narrow (24 m wide) and rounded at each end.

The chimney plant Edouard Francois (2004)

They are offset with respect to each other, which combined with their narrow width, can easily brighten the office.

The facades are dotted with blinds lowered automatically according to lighting, providing them a wide variety and an original aesthetic .

towers built in 1995 (Michel Andrault, Pierre Parat, Nicolas Ayoub) on behalf of the "Société Générale", measure both 167 meters high (37 floors). The south tower of white stone houses of Chassagne, Chassagne is called and the north tower containing red marble from Alicante, Alicante .

The two towers are separated by forty meters, and both have a strong peak inclined.


Andrault Michel, Nicolas Ayoub, are also the architects of the Aegean towers (40 storeys 1999) and Adria or Technip (40 storeys 1999-2002), with Conceptua.

Pullman Hotel (22 floors) is completed in 2000.

Tower EDF (architects Pei Cobb Freed and Partners), completed in 2001 is 165 meters high, making it one of the tallest towers of La Defense. The plan of the tower is lenticular in its maximum length, the tower measures over 70 feet long while its width does not exceed 32 m.

Extruded from a conical shape of the 26 first floor of the north entrance, the tower is longer at the top than at its base. The northern entrance is also surmounted by a circular canopy of 24 m in diameter. The façade alternates between horizontal bands of steel and glass .


A church on the square ... The Architecture of Our Lady of Pentecost (consecrated in 2001) is special. Designed by architect Frank Hammoutène the heart of La Defense, Our Lady of Pentecost overlooks the highways, giving the impression of being suspended over the void.
She seems to have been made for the site, because its shape is essentially cubic, and it does not adopt the plan or direction to cross the East.

The material used for the main structure is concrete. The church is reported a discreet cross around the entrance. In addition, a facade rises to a height of 35 meters, partly detached from the building, like a steeple. On this concrete wall covered with gray opaque glass windows, two lines of lighter color draw on the full height and full width another cross, as a watermark.

This giant screen, with a thickness of 80 cm, was designed to withstand strong winds that circulate on the square, and is able to bend slightly. It was designed in collaboration with the company Francis Rice Ritchie (RFR). Because of the complex organization of equipment located in the square slab of Defense, the foundations of the building alone accounted for one third of the total cost (we used to 62 cells, some inclined to 20 ° to avoid underground obstacles).


Defense Project 2015, validated by the state in 2006 map for modernizing the business district should help give it a new dimension .. and somewhat Pharaonic, build, by 2015, 300,000 sqm of new office space and 150 000 by the demolition and rebuilding!
The main thrusts are to regenerate towers obsolete, authorize new construction, ensuring the balance offices / homes and facilitate connections with the homes of employees of the Defense .


new towers, T1 Tower (185 meters) and Granite Tower (184 meters) were completed in 2008.
The tower was begun in 2005 Q1 a height of 185 meters 36 floors, is currently the highest Ward towers after Total and First.

the thumb of Caesar (1965) installed in 1994

Designed by the architectural firm Valode Pistre and it has the shape of a sheet folded in half like a sail inflated by the wind.

The south facade of the tower is strictly vertical (to the defense), while the north side façade Courbevoie gradually descends towards ensuring a transition to the lower city .


The prism Tower Granite (December 2008) of 184 m in height (37 floors), signed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc is the first skyscraper (tall building) certified commercial building NF-HQE (high environmental quality).

The tower (far left ...) is the fourth tallest tower defense after the towers First, Total and T1.

Tower Granite addition to the other two towers of the Societe Generale (Chassagne and Alicante), All three are accessible from the same host. Long announced at a height of 230 m, the project was reviewed at the request of the General Society, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States.


The First Tower, "the former UAP and AXA" designed by architect Pierre Dufau, was built in 1974. High of 159.66 m, the plan takes the form of a three-pointed star, separated by 120 ° from each other starting from a central core, form symbolizing the merger of three insurance companies originally the PSU.

It been since March 2007, on a conception of the British architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, a partner with French firm SRA, a massive transformation in both in appearance than its height.

tower renovated (2011) to measure 231 m and become the highest skyscraper in France (in front of the Montparnasse Tower) in 2011 and among the ten highest in Europe .

Some projects have not led by example the "endless tour" in 1990 (Jean Nouvel) for financial reasons

and recently, the construction of the tower Signal "(301 yards, nearly 100 floors, originally scheduled end 2013), architect Jean Nouvel again, has been abandoned, announced in March 2010.

Jean Nouvel has waived its construction!

The first draft Defense 2015, recently completed two thousand employees find these days (July 2010) their new offices of Defense in a tower completely redone, BC 21 ( former GAN tower - see 1st season).

In October 2011 the foundation stone of the tower Carpe Diem, erected in place of the building France Telecom, will be asked.

The Hermitage Plaza project seems close to reaching ...

A new building block: By order dated July 2, 2010, the state creates a new public management across the Territory Defence Seine Arche (EPADESA) that of the Seine to the Seine, brings together the operations of national interest to Defence and Seine-Arche.

To learn more about EPADESA, click!

Time will tell!