Archinect - News

HdM's Tour Triangle: Contractor selected as construction is set to formally begin

2022-01-25T16:58:00-05:00

An update has come in one of the most controversial developments in recent Parisian history: The Belgian construction group Besix has been announced as the contractor for the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tour Triangle in the 15th arrondissement’s Parc des Expositions.

Global Construction Review is now reporting that the Brussels-based concern has been tapped by developers Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) to lead the building and construction of the €670 million ($757 million) mixed-use tower. The company can now add the project to its list of high-profile developments that includes the Uptown Tower in Dubai and Pierre Fakhoury's record-setting F Tower development in the Ivory Coast.

Previously on Archinect: Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is set to break ground in Paris despite a last-minute effort to stop it

The news comes about two months after a final attempt by local politicians to halt groundbreaking on the fraught 42-story development. Detractors have been pushing for years to...

Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is set to break ground in Paris despite a last-minute effort to stop it

2021-11-19T17:03:00-05:00

The debate surrounding Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle is picking up this week amidst news that the €670 million ($757 million) project will begin construction within the next month in spite of a torrent of backlash that has beset the development since its announcement in 2008.

As the plan moves forward, a last-minute effort has propped up among Parisians intent on making a final stand against the looming tower.

Located in the 15th arrondissement, the 42-story glass triangle would become the city’s third-tallest building outside of the city’s bifurcated La Défense business district. The mayor of the 15th (who compared the development to the Hydra of Lerna) lobbed a last-minute effort to postpone the plan at yesterday’s meeting of the Conseil de Paris, stating that an office building of its type is no longer necessary in the post-pandemic economy, which resulted in a verbal back-and-forth between himself and socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has been an ardent supporter of the pr...

Herzog & de Meuron's contested Triangle Tower approved by court; first new skyscraper in Paris in almost 50 years

2019-05-09T14:32:00-04:00

The Administrative Court of Paris has approved Paris’ first skyscraper since Montparnasse in 1973, set to be located in the city's south. [...] The ambitious building was first rejected in late-2014, and subsequently approved after some modifications by the Council of Paris mid-2015 by a narrow majority.

Herzog & de Meuron's controversial Tour Triangle project is back from a lengthy legal hiatus and will—now officially backed by court approval—start construction later this year.

Image: Herzog & de Meuron

First unveiled in 2008, the 42-story triangle-shaped skyscraper wasn't an immediate neighborhood darling, to say the least, and divided the city's public opinion on what the Paris of the future should look like for years. The design was initially rejected in 2014, then approved in the following year, and later held up in legal limbo again.

Image: Herzog & de Meuron

The 180 m (590 ft) tall tower will be the first skyscraper to be constructed in central Paris (outside of the La Defense business district) in almost half a century—46 years after the much-loathed Tour Montparnasse went up in 1973.

Herzog & de Meuron named 2015 RIBA Jencks Award winners

2015-08-19T13:27:00-04:00

Herzog & de Meuron have the widest approach to architecture varying their style for each job. In this sense they epitomise the global search for an architecture of pluralism, one flexible enough for very different cultures...The high quality of the work is as notable as the wit; the amount of production as much as its personality. -RIBA President Stephen Hodder

Herzog & de Meuron, whose works include the recently approved yet controversial Tour Triangle in Paris and the redevelopment of Berlin's Tacheles cultural center, received the 2015 RIBA Jencks Award for being a practice "that has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture." In a statement by RIBA President Stephen Hodder, he noted that "the contribution to our profession from Jacques and Pierre is constantly profound."

The award, which includes a £1,000 pound honorarium and the opportunity to deliver a lecture to RIBA chaired by Mr. Charles Jencks, will be officially presented on October 29th in London.

Parisian Exports and Silicon Valley Imports on Episode #37 of Archinect Sessions

2015-07-09T19:17:00-04:00

Our episode this week revolves around Paris – city of lights, riots, artists and cheese-shaped skyscrapers (or at least, those are the bits were talking about). As part of a nationwide strike against UberPop, the cheapest Uber-affiliate in France, taxi drivers in Paris launched a riotous protest on June 25, terrorizing Uber drivers and generally disrupting Parisians in transit (and Courtney Love).

Contention (albeit the nonviolent kind) also arose in response to Herzog & de Meuron's new Tour Triangle skyscraper, which Paris officials approved on June 30. It will be the city's first skyscraper since the much-maligned Tour Montparnasse was built in 1973, precipitating a height limit on new buildings (that has since been relaxed). Critics are unhappy about the Triangle's intrusion onto the Parisian skyline, and its inhospitable-looking atmosphere on the street level.

Paul also shares his conversation with Guggenheim Helsinki winners Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, following up on ...

Paris approves its first skyscraper of the 21st century

2015-07-01T12:52:00-04:00

[Paris] has not built a modern skyscraper since the 1970s, when the 231-metre tall Tour Montparnasse sprung up – much to the horror of the locals, many of whom still consider it an eyesore.

In a narrow vote, the city of lights approved Herzog & de Meuron's Tour Triangle, a 42-story skyscraper that will be the tallest building to be built in Paris since the 1970s. In 2010, the city voted to remove its multi-decade-long height restrictions of 36 meters on new buildings, which were put in place after the erection of the widely unpopular Tour Montparnasse. With a proposed height of 180 meters, Tour Triangle is Paris' first official skyscraper of the 21st century, although it required two voting sessions to win approval. In November of 2014, the city council voted down the plan, but mayor Anne Hidalgo called for another vote, dismissing the first round due to what she believed was political inter-party fighting.

The Tour Triangle will supply 70,000 square feet of office space, a four star hotel with 120 rooms, and what has been described as a "Shard-esque Sky Bar." These amenities do not seem wildly out of place for a metropolitan area with a population of 12 million, des...

HdM's Triangle skyscraper continues to divide Paris over its historic identity

2014-12-22T12:54:00-05:00

Alexandre Gady, conservationist, historian of French architecture and professor of modern architecture at the Sorbonne, argues that changing or “renewing” Paris diverts from its real need to look outwards. Paris, he says, is a “finished” city that does not need improving or anything more doing to it. “It’s not that we should be doing this or that – we should not be doing anything in central Paris ... any plan is a diversion from the need of the city to grow outwards,” [...]

Previously: Paris row after HdM's Triangle skyscraper rejected

Paris row after HdM's Triangle skyscraper rejected

2014-11-18T14:49:00-05:00

Amid politically charged scenes, Paris city council has narrowly rejected a plan to build the historic city's first skyscraper since a height restriction was imposed in the 1970s. But Mayor Anne Hidalgo said [...] she would fight the Triangle tower vote. [...] The architects, Herzog and de Meuron, proposed to build the 180m (590ft) tower in the south-west Porte de Versailles area of the city, after then-Mayor Bertrand Delanoe proposed an end to the 37m limit in parts of the capital.