Also known as: Signal Tower Built: 2015 Designed by: Jean Nouvel Type: Skyscraper Stories: 71 Maximum Height: 988 feet / 301 meters Location: Porte Ouest, Paris, France
I t is often the simplest shapes which compel us. The former twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were mostly just upended bricks with vertical stripes. London's new City Hall is a giant glass and steel egg. And there are countless buildings from Tokyo to Dubai to San Francisco which elongate the simple triangle into an architectural spire.
It is from the simple shape of a square that Jean Nouvel created his Signal Tower. The building comes across as four boxes stacked one upon the other. The top three having changes in the center of their facades to add visual interest and distinguish one from the other. Between the blocks is metal cladding that, if the light is right, will reflect the sky and make it seem as if the massive cubes are floating in mid-air.
Even in frilly Paris, the box is not an unusual architectural form. Nearby the Signal Tower in the La Defense district is the iconic Grande Arche -- itself a 300-foot-tall cube with a hollow middle. The Signal Tower pays homage to this work of architectural prowess by stacking four smaller Grande Arches into a single tower.
New York, United States
