Tour Initiale (previously known as tour Nobel) is an office building located in
La Défense business district just west of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
. The 105 m (344 ft) Tour Initiale was the first office tower built in the La Défense district with its construction being completed in 1966. In 1988, the tower was given an internal renovation, and the new name of Tour Initiale.
The Tour Initiale was designed by
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s
Jean de Mailly
Jean Pierier of Mailly, called Jean de Mailly, was a Dominican chronicler working in Metz in the mid-13th century. In his Latin chronicle of the Diocese of Metz, ''Chronica universalis Mettensis'', the fable of Pope Joan first appears in written ...
and
Jacques Depussé
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
and
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
Jean Prouvé
Jean Prouvé (8 April 1901 – 23 March 1984) was a French metal worker, self-taught architect and designer. Le Corbusier designated Prouvé a constructeur, blending architecture and engineering. Prouvé's main achievement was transferring ma ...
who designed the building's glass facade. The tower uses curved
glass
Glass is a non-Crystallinity, crystalline, often transparency and translucency, transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most ...
on the building's corners, which, at the time of construction, was generally unknown in France and the glass had to be imported from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
.
See also
*
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
*
La Défense
*
List of tallest structures in Paris
The tallest structure in the City of Paris and the Île-de-France remains the Eiffel Tower in the 7th arrondissement, 300 meters high ''(or 330 m including the broadcasting antenna at its top)'', completed in 1889 as the gateway to the 1889 Pari ...
External links
Official SiteEmporis Buildings, Tour Initiale
Initiale
Initiale
Office buildings completed in 1966
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