How This Skyscraper Ruined Paris, and Why They’re Now Trying to Make It Invisible
The playwright Tristan Bernard is said to have eaten lunch at the Eiffel Tower every day, but not because he liked the menu in its café: rather, because it was the only place in Paris with no view of the Eiffel Tower. His view wasn’t wholly eccentric in the decades after its construction, in the late eighteen-eighties, when the structure had yet to become the most beloved in France, and perhaps in the world. Yet not far behind the Eiffel Tower as a must-visit tourist attraction in a town full of them is Paris’ least beloved building: the Tour Montparnasse, which since its completion in 1973 has stood in infamy as the only skyscraper in the center of the city.
Unlike the Eiffel Tower, which was commissioned in part to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution, the Tour Montparnasse projects no political symbolism; unlike Notre-Dame de Paris, or Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre, it has no religious significance. Its purpose is wholly commercial, befitting a large office building with a shopping mall — or now, the remains of a shopping mall — at the bottom. But when it was first conceived in 1958, it embodied the very image of modernity in a built environment that was dilapidated where it wasn’t war-torn. A modern skyscraper would show the world, unmistakably, that Paris had stepped fully into the twentieth century of indoor plumbing, electricity, fast trains, and telecommunication.
This mission gained the full backing of none other than Andre Malraux, then France’s first Minister of Cultural Affairs. Unfortunately, nineteen-fifties Europe lacked the technology, expertise, and money required for a 60-story skyscraper, let alone one serving as the centerpiece of a sweeping redevelopment project that included gleaming new residential blocks and a completely rebuilt Montparnasse Station. The tower couldn’t even break ground until 1969, by which time the building’s once-cutting-edge mid-century design — hardly a universal hit even in maquette form — had already begun to look passé. (Part of the problem was surely its color, which architect Philippe Trétiack described as having “a touch of the nicotine stain about it.”)
When the Tour Montparnasse turned 50 a few years ago, I happened to be in Paris on my honeymoon. Nothing was happening to mark the occasion, apart from the long-ongoing discussions about whether to renovate the thing or just knock it down. The former option having won the day, you can see the details of the planned extreme makeover in the B1M video above. Rather than destroying the existing building, the idea is to do the next best thing and make it invisible. This ambitious project will install a new façade of clear glass and bands of sky gardens, among other changes, in order to lighten its burdensome visual mass. But however radical its transformation, one suspects that it will remain most appreciated as the only place in Paris without a view of the Tour Montparnasse.
Related content:
How Paris Became Paris: The Story Behind Its Iconic Squares, Bridges, Monuments & Boulevards
Watch the Building of the Eiffel Tower in Timelapse Animation
The Architectural History of the Louvre: 800 Years in Three Minutes
The Creation & Restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Animated
Why Europe Has So Few Skyscrapers
Why Do People Hate Modern Architecture?: A Video Essay
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.