Sunday, February 12, 2017

Tour Cristal

Tour Cristal by Julien Penven and Jean-Claude Le Bail, Tour Beaugrenelle and Tour Keller in background, Front de Seine, Paris

Tour Cristal by Julien Penven and Jean-Claude Le Bail, 1990
Tour Beaugrenelle (1979) and Tour Keller (1970) in background
Front de Seine
Quartier de Grenelle, 15th arrondissement
Paris, July 2014

“Front de Seine (also known as Beaugrenelle) is a district in Paris, France, located along the river Seine in the 15th arrondissement at the south of the Eiffel Tower. It is, with the 13th arrondissement, one of the few districts in the city of Paris containing highrise buildings, as most have been constructed outside the city (notably in La Défense). The Front de Seine district is the result of an urban planning project from the 1970s. It includes about 20 towers reaching nearly 100 m of height built all around an elevated esplanade. That esplanade is paved with frescos that can be seen only from the elevated floors of the towers. As opposed to Italie 13, the design of the towers is much more varied. The Hôtel Novotel Paris-Tour Eiffel (formerly known as Hôtel Nikkō), for instance, has red-encircled windows, while the Tour Totem consists of a stack of several glassed-blocks. A newly redesigned shopping centre, the Centre commercial Beaugrenelle has opened in 2013.” (Front de Seine, Wikipedia)