La Defense

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La Défense (French: [la de.fɑ̃s]) is a major business district just west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris Metropolitan Area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department Hauts-de-Seine spread across the commune of Courbevoie, and parts of Puteaux and Nanterre.

La Défense is Europe's largest purpose-built business district with 560 hectares (1,400 acres) area, 72 glass and steel buildings of which 16 are completed skyscrapers, 180,000 daily workers, and 3,500,000 square metres (38,000,000 sq ft) of office space. Around its Grande Arche and esplanade ("le Parvis"), La Défense contains many of the Paris urban area's tallest high-rises.

The district is located at the westernmost extremity of the ten-kilometre-long Historical Axis of Paris, which starts at the Louvre in Central Paris, and continues along the Champs-Élysées, well beyond the Arc de Triomphe along the Avenue de la Grande Armée before culminating at La Défense. The district is centred in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Courbevoie, Nanterre and Puteaux. La Défense is primarily a business district, and hosts a population of 25,000 permanent residents and 45,000 students. La Défense is also visited by 8,000,000 tourists each year, and houses an open-air museum.

History

La Défense is named after the iconic statue La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias, which was erected in 1883 to commemorate the soldiers who had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

In September 1958, The Public Establishment for Installation of La Défense (fr) (EPAD) buildings (of which the Esso Tower was the very first) were built and began to slowly replace the city's factories, shanties, and even a few farms. The Center of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) was built and first used in 1958. These "first generation" skyscrapers were all very similar in appearance, limited to a height of 100 metres (330 ft). In 1966, the Nobel Tower was the first office skyscraper built in the area. In 1970, the RER line A railway was opened from La Défense to Étoile. In 1974, a contract for a Défense-Cergy high-speed hovercraft train was signed and soon abandoned.

In the early 1970s, in response to great demand, a second generation of buildings began to appear, but the economic crisis in 1973 nearly halted all construction in the area. A third generation of towers began to appear in the early 1980s. The biggest commercial centre in Europe (at the time), the Quatre Temps, was created in 1981. In 1982, the EPAD launched the Tête Défense competition to find a monument to complete the Axe historique, which eventually led to the construction of Grande Arche at the west end of the quarter. During the same period, hotels were constructed, the CNIT was restructured, and in 1992, Line 1 of the Paris Métro was extended to La Défense, which made the area readily accessible to even more of the city.

On Bastille Day 1990, French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre staged an ambitious concert at the site, using the Grande Arche and three of the area's towers as projection screens, and building a pyramidal stage above the road. The free concert, titled simply Paris la Defense, attracted two million spectators, stretching all the way back to the Arc de Triomphe. This beat Jarre's own previous world record for the largest attendance for a musical concert. After Jean Michel Jarre, German DJ Sash! and the singer La Trec have set at La Défense the videoclip for their song Stay in 1997.

After a stagnation in new development in the mid-1990s, La Défense is once again expanding and is now the largest purpose-built business district in Europe.

Important corporations headquartered at La Défense include Neuf Cegetel, Société Générale, Total, Aventis, Areva, and Arcelor. The tallest skyscraper, the Tour First belongs to AXA, constructed in 1974. It is 231 metres (758 ft) high, has 50 floors, and is the highest inhabited building in the Paris area (a title previously held by the Tour Montparnasse, which was the tallest inhabited building until the Tour First was renovated between 2007 and 2011, bringing it to its current height from a previous 159 metres (522 ft); the tallest structure in Paris is the Eiffel Tower).

On 9 September 2008, La Défense celebrated its 50th anniversary with a huge fireworks display.

In December 2005, Bernard Bled, CEO & Chairman of EPAD (La Defense Management & Development Office) announced an ambitious 9-year development plan called "La Defense 2006–2015".This important modernisation plan has to give a new dimension to the district and focuses on four main axes: regenerate outdated skyscrapers, allow new buildings, improve the balance between offices and residential housing and make the transport of local employees from their homes to La Défense easier. There are 3 aims: building 150,000 square metres (1,600,000 sq ft) of offices within demolition/rebuilding projects, building 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) of offices within new projects, and building 100,000 square metres (1,100,000 sq ft) of housing.

The government confirmed in July 2006 this plan which has to be carried out around 2015. It is justified by the strong estate pressure, which plays in favour of building new skyscrapers near Paris. Those constructions have also the advantage to be more economical than little buildings. But it will have to overcome some difficulties: French economy faces a short-term slowdown; the government tries to balance tertiary sector employment in the whole region again, because La Défense today concentrates a major part of those jobs; and traffic is already saturated in the district, while it would need huge investments to extend transport infrastructures.

It launched high profile international competitions and/or construction greenlight of several key 300-to-320-metre (980 to 1,050 ft) tall sustainable development-style skyscrapers such as Tour Signal, Tour Phare, Hermitage Plaza, and Tour Generali. During said December 2005 Press Conference, EPAD released to the public an elaborate 3D animation film titled "La Défense 2015".

Area specifications

• Divided into 4 major sectors
• 400 acres (1.6 km2)
• 3,500,000 square metres (38,000,000 sq ft) of offices
• 1,500 businesses
• 150,000 employees
• 20,000 residents
• 210,000 square metres (2,300,000 sq ft) of shops (including the 140,000 square metres (1,500,000 sq ft) Quatre Temps Shopping Mall)
• 2,600 hotel rooms
• 310,000 square metres (3,300,000 sq ft) of flagstone and sidewalk
• 110,000 square metres (1,200,000 sq ft) of greenery
• 60 modern art sculptures and monuments

• The name of the district comes from the statue of La Défense de Paris which commemorates the Parisian resistance during the Franco-Prussian War.

• Central esplanade, view from Grande Arche.

• The CNIT with Tour Areva and Cœur Défense skyscrapers.

• View from Arc de Triomphe.

• View from Eiffel Tower.

• The Mall "Les Quatre Temps"

Open-air museum

Besides the representative architecture, the area also houses an open-air museum with 70 statues and pieces of modern art, including the following most remarkable works :

• César, Thumb (1965)
• Joan Miró, Two fantastic characters (1976)
• Alexander Calder, Red Spider (1976)
• Yaacov Agam, Fountain (1977)
• Richard Serra, Slat (1982)
• Shelomo Selinger, The Dance (1983)
• Bernar Venet, Two Indeterminate Lines (1988)
• Takis, Bright Trees (1990)
• Igor Mitoraj, Tindaro (1997)
• Emily Young, Four Heads (2002)
• Patrick Blanc, Green wall (2006)
• Louis-Ernest Barrias, La Défense de Paris (1883)
• François Morellet, La Défonce (1990)
• Guillaume Bottazzi, Peinture de 216 m² (2014)

• Takis, Bright Trees, c. 1990

Tallest buildings

• Tour First

• Tour Total

• Société Générale Twin Towers

Completed highrise buildings above 90 m (295 ft) (1967–2014)

Name Built Use Height Levels Municipality metres feet Tour First (formerly tour AXA) 1974/2011 office 231 758 52 Courbevoie Tour Majunga 2014 office 193 636 47 Puteaux Tour Total (Coupole) 1985 office 187 614 48 Courbevoie Tour GDF Suez (T1) 2008 office 185 607 37 Courbevoie Tour Areva 1974 office 184 604 44 Courbevoie Tour Granite (Société Générale) 2008 office 183 600 37 Nanterre Tour CB21 (formerly tour Gan) 1974 office 179 587 42 Courbevoie Tour D2 2014 office 171 561 37 Courbevoie Tour Alicante (Société Générale) 1995 office 167 548 37 Nanterre Tour Chassagne (Société Générale) 1995 office 167 548 37 Nanterre Tour EDF 2001 office 165 541 41 Puteaux Tour Carpe Diem 2013 office 162 531 38 Courbevoie Cœur Défense 2001 office 161 528 40 Courbevoie Tour Adria (Technip) 2002 office 155 509 40 Courbevoie Tour Égée (Ernst&Young) 1999 office 155 509 40 Courbevoie Tour Ariane 1975 office 152 499 36 Puteaux Tour Dexia (CBX) 2005 office 142 466 36 Courbevoie Tour Europlaza 1995 office 135 443 31 Courbevoie Tour Défense 2000 1974 residential 134 440 47 Puteaux Tour Eqho (formerly tour Descartes) 1988 office 130 427 40 Courbevoie Tour Les Poissons 1970 mixed 129.5 425 42 Courbevoie Tour France 1973 residential 126 413 40 Puteaux Tour Franklin 1972 office 120 394 33 Puteaux Tour Sequoia (Bull, Cegetel, SFR) 1990 office 119 390 33 Puteaux Tour Winterthur 1973 office 119 390 33 Puteaux Tour CGI (CB16) 2003 office 117 384 32 Courbevoie Tour Neptune 1972 office 113 371 28 Courbevoie Préfecture des Hauts-de-Seine 1974 office 113 371 25 Nanterre Grande Arche 1989 monument, office 110 361 37 Puteaux Tour Manhattan 1975 office 110 361 32 Courbevoie Tour Aurore 1970 office 110 361 29 Courbevoie Tour Eve 1975 mixed 109 358 30 Puteaux Tour Initiale 1967 office 109 358 30 Puteaux Tour Nuage 1, Tours Aillaud 1976 residential 105 344 39 Nanterre Tour Nuage 2, Tours Aillaud 1976 residential 105 344 39 Nanterre Tour Gambetta 1975 residential 104 341 37 Courbevoie Tour Cèdre 1998 office 103 338 26 Courbevoie Tour Opus 12 1973 office 100 328 27 Puteaux Tour Athéna 1984 office 100 328 25 Puteaux Tour Europe 1969 office 99 325 28 Courbevoie Tour AIG 1967 office 99 325 27 Courbevoie Tour Prisma (Tour Kvaerner) 1998 office 97 318 25 Courbevoie Tour Atlantique 1970 office 95 312 27 Puteaux Tour Pascal 1983 office 95 312 27 Puteaux Tour Pacific 1992 office 90 295 25 Puteaux

Upcoming highrise buildings (2016–2021)

Name Use Height Levels Municipality Status (2016) Estimated Year of Completion metres feet Hermitage Plaza II mix 323 1,060 86 Courbevoie Construction start in 2017 2020/2021 Hermitage Plaza I mix 323 1,060 85 Courbevoie Construction start in 2017 2020/2021 Tour Hekla office 220 722 41 Puteaux Construction start in 2017 2020 Tour Sister 1 office 219 718 40 Courbevoie approved 2021 Tour Air² office 202 663 43 Courbevoie approved 2021 Tour Saint-Gobain office 178 584 39 Courbevoie Under construction 2019 Tour Alto office 160 492 38 Courbevoie Under construction 2020 Tour Trinity office 151 459 32 Courbevoie Under construction 2018 Tour AVA office 142 466 34 Courbevoie approved 2020 Tours Sister 2 office 121 396 26 Courbevoie proposed 2021 Tour Vinci office 108 354 22 Nanterre approved 2021 Skylight housing 76 249 19 Puteaux Under construction 2017 Campuséa residence housing 75 246 20 Puteaux Under construction 2018

Canceled projects

1. Tour Sans Fins (1989): 425 m (1,394 ft)
2. Tour Generali (2011): 319 m (1,047 ft)
3. Tour Signal (2009): 301 m (988 ft)
4. Tour Phare (2018): 296 m (971 ft)