Archinect - News

Can a massive makeover turn Montparnasse into the Times Square of Paris?

2015-09-09T15:00:00-04:00

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has suggested the area around the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper could become the Times Square of the French capital. Now its owners plan to try and make that dream come true. [...] The owners of the 59-storey building are due to launch an international architecture competition next year to revamp the brown tower block and the shopping mall at its base with a major makeover that could cost up to €700 million.

Related on Archinect:

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...

Top architects defend some of the most hated buildings in the world

2015-06-05T14:23:00-04:00

Can the field’s top minds change the way we think about a doomed housing project in Naples or the most abhorred skyscraper in Paris? Allow them to try.

Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Annabelle Selldorf, and (everyone's favorite) Daniel Libeskind are among the architects who sum up their thoughts on some of the most controversial buildings around the world. What's your take on these projects?

Zaha Hadid, Piers Gough, other leading cultural figures criticize Heatherwick's London Garden Bridge

Frick Collection drops controversial expansion plan

Frank Lloyd Wright house causes controversy in wealthy Phoenix neighborhood

Developer wants to re-use and trademark the 5Pointz name for their new residential towers

MVRDV approved to redesign the '70s Vandamme Nord block in Montparnasse, Paris

2015-02-25T15:28:00-05:00

MVRDV officially got the green light from the City of Paris for their plans to restructure the Vandamme Nord at Gaîté-Montparnasse in Paris' 14th arrondissement. Built in the early 1970s by French architect Pierre Dufau, the mixed-use complex is located on a triangular island bordered by Rue Mouchotte, Avenue du Maine, and the rail tracks to Gare Montparnasse.

The Vandamme was once a landmark as one of the largest urban projects at the time, but -- with dying malls continuing to be the norm -- its glory days faded away as it failed to keep up with a changing urban society.

Aiming to renew a sense of place within the Montparnasse district and improve public accessibility, MVRDV plans to give the building a new façade as well as completely reorganize and open up the building's internal program. The complex will be broken up into a collection of "boxes" inserted in the existing structural frame that will vary in size, program, color, and materials, and will also be flexibly designed for...