Tour Montparnasse

The building has 59 floors and is built on top of the Montparnasse–Bienvenüe station of the Paris Métro.

There is an observation deck, branded as Paris Montparnasse,{{Cite web |title=L'Observatoire Panoramique de la Tour Montparnasse |url=https://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/fr/ |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=Tour Montparnasse 56 |language=fr-FR}} located on the 56th floor, {{convert|200|m|abbr=on}} above the ground.{{Cite web |url=https://www.parisdigest.com/paris-restaurants/restaurants-with-view.htm |title=Top Paris restaurants with a view |year=2018 |publisher=Paris Digest |access-date=3 January 2019}} The same floor hosts a restaurant called {{langx|fr|Ciel de Paris|lit=Sky of Paris|label=none}}.[http://www.cieldeparis.com Ciel de Paris] There is also a rooftop terrace.{{Cite web |title=Getting to the Montparnasse Tower Observation Deck: metro, car, bus |url=https://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/en/practical-information/access/ |access-date=15 September 2022 |website=Tour Montparnasse 56 |language=en-US}} On a clear day, the view from the observation deck extends for {{convert|40|km|abbr=on}}; aircraft can be seen taking off from Orly Airport. The guard rail, to which various antennae are attached, can be pneumatically lowered.{{why|date=May 2025}}

In 1934, the old Montparnasse station located on the edges of the similarly named boulevard, opposite the Rue de Rennes, appeared ill-suited to traffic. The city of Paris planned to reorganise the district and build a new station. But the project, entrusted to Raoul Dautry (who would give his name to the square of the tower), met strong opposition and was cancelled.

In 1956, on the occasion of the adoption of the new master plan for the Paris traffic plan, the Société d'économie mixte pour l'Aménagement du secteur Maine Montparnasse (SEMMAM) was created, as well as the l'Agence pour l'Opération Maine Montparnasse (AOM). Their mission was to redevelop the neighbourhood, which required razing many streets, often dilapidated and unsanitary. The site then occupied up to {{convert|8|ha}}.

In 1958, the first studies of the tower were well launched, but the project was strongly criticised because of the height of the building. A controversy ensued, led by the Minister of Public Works Edgard Pisani, who obtained the support of André Malraux, then Minister of Culture under General de Gaulle which led to slowdowns in the project.{{Cite web |date=18 June 2013 |title=La Tour Montparnasse fête ses quarante ans... de désamour |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2013/06/17/tour-montparnasse-40-ans-histoire_n_3456091.html |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Le HuffPost |language=fr}}

However, the reconstruction of the Montparnasse station a few hundred metres south of the old one and the destruction of the Gare du Maine, which was included in the real estate project of the AOM, a joint agency which brought together the four architects: Urbain Cassan, Eugène Beaudouin and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien, was carried out from June 1966 to the spring of 1969 with the assistance of the architect Jean Saubot.

In 1968, André Malraux granted the building permit for the Tower to the AOM and work began that same year.{{Cite web |last=Batiactu |date=11 March 2008 |title=L'histoire de la tour Montparnasse (diaporama) |url=https://www.batiactu.com/edito/histoire-tour-montparnasse-diaporama-8511.php |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Batiactu |language=fr}} The project was spearheaded by the American real estate developer Wylie Tuttle, who enlisted a consortium of 17 French insurance companies and seven banks in the $140 million multiple-building project, but later distanced himself from the project until his 2002 obituary revealed that the building was his original "brainchild".{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=6 April 2002 |title=Wylie F. L. Tuttle, 79, Force Behind Paris Tower |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/06/nyregion/wylie-f-l-tuttle-79-force-behind-paris-tower.html |access-date=31 August 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=Bienvenue sur le site de Sefri-Cime |url=http://www.sefricime.fr/fr/immobilier_entreprise_sieges_sociaux/sefri_cime_savoir_faire/sefri_cime_realisation_grande_envergure_atypique/pres_detaillee/sefri_cime_paris_tour_montparnasse.php |access-date=31 August 2021 |website=sefricime.fr}}{{Cite news |last=Marlowe |first=Lara |date=16 December 2013 |title=Tour Montparnasse contaminated with asbestos |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/tour-montparnasse-contaminated-with-asbestos-1.1628848 |access-date=31 August 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Louise Huxtable |first=Ada |date=28 May 2002 |title=The Myth of the Invulnerable Skyscraper |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1022544349409402440 |access-date=31 August 2021 |issn=0099-9660}}

In 1969, the decision to build a shopping centre was finally made, and Georges Pompidou, then President of the Republic, wanted to provide the capital with modern infrastructure. Despite a major controversy, the construction of the tower was started.

For geographer Anne Clerval, this construction symbolises the service economy of Paris in the 1970s resulting from deindustrialisation policies which, from the 1960s, favoured "bypassing by space the most working class strongholds at the time".{{Cite web |date=17 October 2013 |title=Anne Clerval: "À Paris, le discours sur la mixité sociale a remplacé la lutte des classes" |url=https://www.humanite.fr/anne-clerval-paris-le-discours-sur-la-mixite-sociale-remplace-la-lutte-des-classes |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=L'Humanité |language=fr}}

File:Highpoints of Paris.svg

The Tour Montparnasse was built between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station. The first stone was laid in 1970 and the inauguration took place in 1973.

The foundations of the tower are made up of 56 reinforced concrete pillars sinking {{convert|70|m|abbr=on}} underground. For urban planning reasons, the tower had to be built just above a Metro line; and to avoid using the same support and weakening it, the Metro structures were protected by a reinforced concrete shield. Long horizontal beams were installed in order to free up the space needed in the basement to fit out the tracks for trains.{{Cite web |last=Batiactu |date=11 March 2008 |title=L'histoire de la tour Montparnasse |url=https://www.batiactu.com/edito/histoire-tour-montparnasse-20594.php |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Batiactu |language=fr}}

File:Tour Montparnasse Shopping Arcade 2010.jpg

The tower is mainly occupied by offices. Various companies and organisations have settled in the tower:

• The International Union of Architects, Axa and MMA insurers, the mining and metallurgy company Eramet, Al Jazeera
• Political parties have used campaign offices, such as François Mitterrand in 1974, the RPR in the late 1970s, Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche! in 2016, Benoît Hamon since 2018
• Previously Tour Maine-Montparnasse housed the executive management of Accor."[https://web.archive.org/web/20061017071844/http://www.accor.com/gb/commun/contact/adresses.asp Address book]." Accor. 17 October 2006. Retrieved on 19 March 2012. "Executive Management Tour Maine-Montparnasse 33, avenue du Maine 75755 Paris Cedex 15 France"

The 56th floor, with its terrace, bars and restaurant, has been used for private or public events. During the 1980s and 1990s, the live National Lottery was cast on TF1 from the 56th floor.

French urban climber Alain Robert scaled the building's exterior glass and steel wall to the top twice, in 1995 and in 2015, both times using no equipment or safety devices.Ed Douglas, "Vertigo? No problem for Spiderman", Manchester Guardian Weekly, 11 May 1997, p. 30{{Cite web |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1178906 |title=French "spiderman" climbs Paris skyscraper for Nepal |date=29 April 2015 |website=dawn.com |language=en |access-date=8 March 2020}} The feat was also undertaken by Polish climber Marcin Banot in 2020 and 2023.{{Cite web |url=https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114881,26316781,paryz-polak-wspinal-sie-po-elewacji-wiezy-montparnasse-zostal.html |title=Polish tourist climbed Montparnasse |date=19 September 2020 |website=gazeta.pl |language=pl |access-date=27 September 2020}}Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/HPQSabM7LVs Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200927111438/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPQSabM7LVs&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPQSabM7LVs |title=Climbing Montparnasse |date=18 September 2020 |website=YouTube |language=pl |access-date=27 September 2020}}{{cbignore}}

Tour Montparnasse next to the [[Eiffel Tower|thumb]]

The tower's simple architecture, large proportions and monolithic appearance have been often criticised by Parisians for being out of place in Paris's cityscape.{{Cite web |url=http://blog.citibreak.com/montparnasse-tower-a-story-of-passion-and-hate-since-40-years/ |title=Montparnasse Tower, a story of passion and hate since 40 years |access-date=13 April 2015 |archive-date=16 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316105825/http://blog.citibreak.com/montparnasse-tower-a-story-of-passion-and-hate-since-40-years/ |url-status=dead }} As a result, two years after its completion the construction of buildings over seven storeys tall in the city centre was banned in Paris. This ban was lifted in 2015.{{cite news |last=Laurenson |first=John |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22811518 |title=Does Paris need new skyscrapers? |work=BBC News |date=18 June 2013 |access-date=18 June 2013}}{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/6e8a5d0a-ec44-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8 |title=Will Parisians embrace the city's first skyscraper since 1973? |newspaper=Financial Times |date=24 March 2016}}

The design of the tower predates architectural trends of more modern skyscrapers today that are often designed to provide a window for every office. Only the offices around the perimeter of each floor of Tour Montparnasse have windows.

It is said as a joke among Parisians that the tower's observation deck enjoys the most beautiful view in all of Paris because it is the only place from which the tower cannot be seen.{{cite news |last=Ouroussoff |first=Nicolai |date=26 September 2008 |title=Architecture, Tear Down These Walls |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/arts/design/28ouro.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617032826/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/arts/design/28ouro.html |archive-date=17 June 2012 |access-date=15 August 2012 |work=New York Times }}

A 2008 poll of editors on Virtualtourist voted the building the second-ugliest building in the world, behind Boston City Hall in the United States.{{cite news |last=Goldsmith |first=Belinda |title=Travel Picks: 10 top ugly buildings and monuments |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE4AD2V720081114 |work=Reuters |date=14 November 2008 |access-date=15 August 2012}}

In 2005, studies showed that the tower contained asbestos material. When inhaled, for instance during repairs, asbestos is a carcinogen. Monitoring revealed that legal limits of fibres per litre were surpassed and, on at least one occasion, reached 20 times the legal limit. Due to health and legal concerns, some tenants abandoned their offices in the building.

Removal of the asbestos was originally expected to take three years.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} After a nearly three-year delay, removal began in 2009 alongside regular operation of the building. In 2012, it was reported the tower was 90% free of asbestos.{{cite web |url=https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/worksite-setup-during-asbestos-removal-work-montparnasse-tower |title=Worksite Setup During Asbestos Removal Work on the Montparnasse Tower |website=osha.europa.eu |access-date=6 March 2020}}

{{Portal|France}}

• List of tallest buildings and structures in the Paris region

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• {{Official website|http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com}}
• [http://www.paris-photos.org/montparnasse-tower.php Photos of Tour Montparnasse] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701193738/http://www.paris-photos.org/montparnasse-tower.php |date=1 July 2018 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20040411224336/http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS00996.html Tour Montparnasse]
• [http://www.par.is.it/Tour/Montparnasse.htm Pictures and info] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809200038/http://www.par.is.it/Tour/Montparnasse.htm |date=9 August 2020 }}
• [https://www.theparisianguide.com/s/montparnasse-tower/ The Parisian Guide]

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Category:Buildings and structures in the 15th arrondissement of Paris

Category:Office buildings in Paris

Montparnasse

Category:Office buildings completed in 1972

Montparnasse

Category:Tourist attractions in Paris

Category:20th-century architecture in France