Previously, the tower was called AXA (UAP) and was built in 1974 by the architect Pierre Dufau: then its height did not even approach the 200 m mark. Now the office building has reached a total height of 231 m, leaving behind the Montparnasse tower (210 m), for a long time the highest in the capital and in the whole of France.
It should be noted that from a legal point of view, La Defense is not part of Paris, but de facto is its business center and the concentration of most high-rise buildings (with the exception of the Eiffel Tower (300 m), which remains the tallest building in the city, and the Montparnasse Tower, located within the boundaries of "lesser" Paris). This quality will continue in the future: in the near future, it is planned to build towers of about and even more than 300 meters in Defence according to the designs of Tom Maine, Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster.
But the current record holder, the FIRST tower, is interesting primarily because it is a reconstruction. From an environmental point of view, it was more correct to rebuild the building, and not to demolish and erect a new one in its place. Green principles are embodied in the KPF project itself: first of all, it concerns the new energy-efficient cladding. The original structure of the building of three "blades" around the central core has been retained, but new openings have been made in the concrete walls to facilitate natural light in the interiors (not to mention staff access to the spectacular views of Paris). The tower is currently the largest office building in the country that has received the national environmental certification HQE (Haute qualité environnementale).
N. F.
