The Revitalist

Tour Montparnasse , the tall brown building in
the background, towers over Paris' low height
boulevards. Photo taken from Eiffel Tower.The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, is running for re-election and is pushing again an old idea of his: removing the height restrictions on new buildings in Paris. The restrictions were put in place in the 1970's after the 59-story Tour Montparnasse was built and largely reviled by the public. Currently new buildings are limited to 37 meters in most areas and 18 meters in some select neighborhoods. While this preserves Paris's 19th century scale and the lovely long views of those Haussmann boulevards, the mayor is concerned that the limits are keeping Paris from the 21st century. He wants to see tall, mixed-use buildings that will create more housing and commercial space for struggling areas of the city.

He even went so far as to have several architectural firms draw plans of a few buildings, all taller than the 37m limit, like the "Phare" (see below) designed by Thom Mayne to be part of La Defense.

The swooping Phare tower (center) is a very au courant design reminiscent of London's "gherkin."

Sir Norman Foster's tower at 30 St Mary Axe, aka "The Gherkin."