A
city full of ancient buildings needs a
special place to put its new buildings.
At the end of the First World War the
city of Paris decided to develop the area
near the Arc de Triomphe at the Etoile
to La Defense. Eventually setteling on
a good spot, the area would be named after
the monument 'La Défense de Paris',
which was erected at this site in 1883
to commemorate the war of 1870. Eventually
being known simply as “La Defense”,
this space was to be filled with endless
rows of modern skyscrapers. Slowed by
the Great Depression in the 1930s, by
1951 the La Défense site was cemented
as an office center, and by 1958 construction
started. What developed by the 1960s was
a mix of mostly cheap towers of different
heights.
This
caused a public outcry, as a “forest
of towers” disturbed the now world
famous view on the Arc de Triomphe as
seen from the Etoile. In response a new
monument was built at the entrance of
the Défense, called the Grande
Arche de la Défense. Initiated
by the French president Mitterand who
wanted to build a “20th century
Arc de Triomphe”, the eventual construction
was made to look like a titanic cube:
it is a 106 meter building, pale white,
with the middle part left open, the sides
of which contain offices.
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