Architecture Watch: Herzog & de Meuron's Parisian Pyramid

If a picture is normally worth a thousand words, then the above rendering gallery is valued at around a billion. Swiss starchitects Herzog & de Meuron, having completed Beijing's Bird's Nest and revealed Tribeca's 56 Leonard Street, have brought their skyline-changing world tour to Paris. Jacques and Pierre have taken 56 Leonard's stacked glass houses and turned the design into a gigantic pyramid, a 650-foot tower called Le Project Triangle that is the first approved skyscraper design following the lifting of the ban on high-rise buildings in the heart of the city.

World Architecture News reports the Triangle will rise at Porte de Versailles in Southern Paris and is set to become the city's third tallest structure, after the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse. The end of the ban on new skyscrapers, which could lead to 20 new high-rises, is meant to "combat the city's housing shortage and invigorate the city’s economic status." The Triangle is expected to be completed in 2014, and before those foreign buyers about to plunk down deposits on Leonard Street start having second thoughts, this one won't be condos. The building will contain offices, a conference center and a 400-room hotel.
· Paris: History in the making [World Architecture News]
· 56 Leonard coverage [Curbed]For more stories from Curbed, go to curbed.com.

Copyright CURBD
Contact Us