[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

The Squashed Gherkin Of Paris

Published on 16-09-2010 by Skyscrapernews.com

Construction is soon to start on a new skyscraper in Paris's central business district, La Defense.

The site is currently occupied by the VERITAS Building, one of the shortest blocks in the high-rise district and it is this which is going to be imminently demolished to allow the construction of the tower, D2.

With 37 floors and a height of 171 metres, D2 won't be the tallest building in the district but it will be one of the most distinct thanks to the structural diagrid on the exterior that looks more like a design from Foster and Partners than Architectes Anthony Bechu et Tom Sheehan.

With semi-circular curving ends book-casing the length of the towers footprint, and a curved roof where the top level of the building uses transparent rather than reflective glazing to strongly express the diagrid, the scheme is almost like a squashed gherkin.

The towers facade even tapers in marginally at the base to expand the public area around its boundary behind the diagrid just like that well known London skyscraper, whilst the top floor of the building will contain a sky garden with the cross-bracing looping over like whalebone.

Despite the economic problems that have halted many of the large projects in La Defence, Tour D2 the developer, Bouygues Immobilier is set to rise in 2011.

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