AN AMBITIOUS design has been chosen for a new 71-storey landmark skyscraper in La Defense on the edge of Paris, which will rival the Eiffel Tower in its domination of the French capital's skyline.
The celebrated architect Jean Nouvel, 62, was selected over four other world-renowned architects, including Britain's Norman Foster, best-known for the London "Gherkin", and the US architect Daniel Libeskind, who was chosen to rebuild Ground Zero, as
well as fellow Frenchmen Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Jacques Ferrier.
Mr Nouvel's winning design, baptised the Signal Tower, will soar 301 metres into the sky, just short of the Eiffel Tower, which measures 324m, making it the second-tallest building in the Paris metropolitan area.
Set in parkland, the rectangular white block will be divided into four stacked levels organised around four atria, the walls of which reflect colour panels.
The building will provide a total surface of 140,000 sq m housing the atria, a luxury hotel, offices, apartments, public facilities, shops and restaurants.
The project will cost an estimated 600 million (£477 million) and is due for delivery in 2015.
The award-winning architect's design aims to provide a focal point for local life and is part of a 2-3 billion plan, announced by the president, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2006, to renovate the 50-year-old business district west of Paris which is often criticised as cold and faceless. Business development is a top priority for Mr Sarkozy, who hopes to make France more competitive.
"The Signal Tower is the most important architectural event since the Eiffel Tower, and it this creativity that the jury wanted," said Patrick Devedjian, the head of the public body in charge of renovating La Defense, EPAD, as he announced the winner.
Mr Devedjian described Mr Nouvel's design as being "irreproachable in terms of technique and sustainable development", and predicted that it would be "the defining building in the greater Paris that is currently taking shape".
The building of skyscrapers is a rare occurrence in Paris, where strict building regulations have until now kept most high-rises firmly outside the city walls – with a few notable exceptions such as the detested Tour Montparnasse, which was built in the 1970s to rise 210m over the south-west of the capital.
This monolithic structure was considered such a disaster that the building of skyscapers in the French capital was banned two years later.
Ironically, for a building which is so disliked, the Tour Montparnasse is now home to the French association of architects. Parisians joke that the best view of their city is to be had from its upper levels, principally because the building itself is no longer visible.
