The Tour Part-Dieu (formerly Tour du Crédit Lyonnais, or colloquially Le Crayon, or The Pencil) is a

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 ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

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 building is tall, in

La Part-Dieu Part-Dieu () is an area of Lyon Metropolis. It is also the second largest tertiary district in France, after La Défense in Greater Paris, with over 1,150,000 m2 of office and service space, along with 45,000 service sector jobs, 2,500 compa ...

district, with 42 floors. The building was completed in 1977. It currently stands as the thirteenth-tallest building in France. The top 10 floors are occupied by Radisson Blu Hotel Lyon, the highest hotel in Europe. The other floors are offices. It is a work of the American firm Araldo Cossutta & Associates and the construction occurred between 1972 and 1977. According to the wishes of the architect, the roof of this tower is roughly the same height as

Notre Dame de Fourviere Notre may refer to: * Notre language *André Le Nôtre * See also *Notre Dame (disambiguation) Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * U ...

. At the opening in 1977, it was the 4th tallest building in France. The tower has a cylindrical shape. It is topped by a 23-metre high pyramid. On the occasion of its 31st anniversary, the tower changed its name and logo. On 22 September 2008, the building was officially renamed Tour Part Dieu. The tower is fondly named ''Le Crayon'' ("The Pencil") by the Lyonnese due to its shape, and the new logo includes this nickname. The tower is served by the Gare Part-Dieu – Vivier Merle station on the metro line .

History

As part of the implementation of Part-Dieu central business district, it was decided to build an office tower to "signal the presence of the district" and "materialize the virtual axis composition that is imagines extended east to Skyscraper of Villeurbanne". The tower was inaugurated in 1977. This construction has proved disastrous economically and hindered the development of the whole area during the ten years since its inauguration.

Technical details

Each floor covers surface for a total area of . An underground parking area on two floors provides 224 car spaces. The main entrance of the tower is located on the esplanade of the Part-Dieu shopping center, while the entrance of the hotel is located at the ground floor, on Rue Servient.

Today

The last ten floors are occupied by a

Radisson Blu Radisson Blu is an international chain of hotels operated by Radisson Hotels. With roots dating back to the 1960s, the Radisson Blu brand name came into existence in 2009 with a rebranding from Radisson SAS. Its hotels are found in major cities, ...

Hotel. The lobby is on the 32nd floor, and is accessible by express elevators directly from the ground floor to the 32nd floor. There is a restaurant on the 32nd floor which provides 360° views over Lyon. Above that floor, the hotel is hollowed on the last 10 floors; the rooms are around a circled corridor to form a central shaft which is lit by the roof pyramid. There are 20

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ar ...

s (lifts), provided by

Schindler Schindler is a German surname that is derived from the German word "schindel", which means " shingle". This suggests that the original bearers of the name were in the roofing business. Variations and alternate spellings of the name include: Shindl ...

, which include: * two high-speed express elevators from the ground floor to the 32nd floor. They travel at 5 m/s. * two hotel elevators, from the 32nd floor to the 42nd floor. * four service elevators, two of which are serving all the floors from B2 to 42nd floor. * ten elevators for the office part, serves each floor from B2 to 31st floor. Currently, the tower is the second-tallest building in Greater Lyon after the

Tour Incity The Tour Incity is a skyscraper office in Lyon, France. The building was completed in 2015 in the business district of La Part-Dieu, at the intersection of the Cours Lafayette (main entrance) and Garibaldi Street to replace the obsolete UAP tower ...

, which will stand at . The Tour Oxygène, completed in 2010, stands just below these two towers, at 120 meters. On the first four floors, a new commercial area was delivered with the tower, and is linked with the Part-Dieu Shopping mall.

In popular culture

Besides its nickname "the pencil", the tower has inspired several items including a chocolate version. It is composed of black chocolate, more than 70% of cocoa of maraschino (bitter cherry liqueur), candied cherries and milk chocolate. It also appeared on the front of postcards of the city, but also a form of humorous newspaper and magazine or on the local Little Paumé, for the tower forming part of the city became one of its most representative monuments. In his song "Lyon Presqu'île" on the album ''The Superb'',

Benjamin Biolay Benjamin Biolay (; born 20 January 1973) is a French singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the brother of singer Coralie Clément—whose first three albums he wrote and produced—and the ex-husband of Chiara Mastroiann ...

(born in Villefranche-sur-Saone) includes "round in pen" in his view of the main monuments of the city.

References

{{3rd arrondissement of Lyon 3rd arrondissement of Lyon Office buildings completed in 1977 Skyscrapers in Lyon Part Skyscraper hotels in France