Tour Maine-Montparnasse (Maine-Montparnasse Tower), also commonly namedTour Montparnasse, is a 210-metre (689 ft) officeskyscraper in theMontparnasse area ofParis, France. Constructed from 1969 to 1973, it was thetallest skyscraper in France until 2011, when it was surpassed by the 231-metre (758 ft)Tour First in theLa Défense business district west of Paris's city limits. It remains the tallest building in Paris proper and the third tallest in France, behind Tour First andTour Hekla. As of July 2023^[update], it is the53rd-tallest building in Europe.

Tour Maine-Montparnasse
Tour Montparnasse inMontparnasse in June 2010
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Location	33Avenue du Maine 15th arrondissement Paris, France
Coordinates	48°50′32″N2°19′19″E / 48.8421°N 2.3220°E /48.8421; 2.3220
Construction started	1969
Completed	1973
Height
Roof	210 m (690 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	60
Floor area	88,400 m2 (952,000 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Cabinet Saubot-Jullien Eugène Élie Beaudouin Louis-Gabriel de Hoÿm de Marien Urbain Cassan A. Epstein and Sons International
Developer	Wylie Tuttle
Website
www.tourmontparnasse56.com/en/
References
[1][2][3][4]

The tower was designed by architectsEugène Beaudouin [fr],Urbain Cassan [fr], andLouis de Hoÿm de Marien [fr] and built byCampenon Bernard.^[5] On 21 September 2017, Nouvelle AOM won a competition to redesign the building's façade.^[6]

Built on top of theMontparnasse–BienvenüeParis Métro station, the building has 59 floors.

The 56th floor, 200 m (660 ft) from the ground,^[7] is home to Paris Montparnasse,^[8] an observation deck owned by Magnicity, a French company which also operates theBerlin TV Tower in Berlin and 360 CHICAGO at the formerJohn Hancock Center in Chicago.^[9] Visitors to the observation deck can also visit the scenic rooftop terrace^[10] or make reservations for the 56th-floor restaurant called Ciel de Paris.^[11]

The view covers a radius of 40 km (25 mi); aircraft can be seen taking off fromOrly Airport.

The guard rail, to which various antennae are attached, can bepneumatically lowered.

In 1934, theold Montparnasse station located on the edges of the similarly named boulevard, opposite the Rue de Rennes, appeared ill-suited to traffic. The city of Paris planned to reorganise the district and build a new station. But the project, entrusted to Raoul Dautry (who would give his name to the square of the tower), met strong opposition and was cancelled.

In 1956, on the occasion of the adoption of the new master plan for the Paris traffic plan, theSociété d'économie mixte pour l'Aménagement du secteur Maine Montparnasse (SEMMAM) was created, as well as thel'Agence pour l'Opération Maine Montparnasse (AOM). Their mission was to redevelop the neighbourhood, which required razing many streets, often dilapidated and unsanitary. The site then occupied up to 8 hectares (20 acres).

In 1958, the first studies of the tower were well launched, but the project was strongly criticised because of the height of the building. A controversy ensued, led by theMinister of Public WorksEdgard Pisani, who obtained the support ofAndré Malraux, then Minister of Culture under Generalde Gaulle which led to slowdowns in the project.^[12]

However, the reconstruction of the Montparnasse station a few hundred metres south of the old one and the destruction of the Gare du Maine, which was included in the real estate project of the AOM, a joint agency which brought together the four architects: Urbain Cassan, Eugène Beaudouin and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien, was carried out from June 1966 to the spring of 1969 with the assistance of the architect Jean Saubot.

In 1968, André Malraux granted the building permit for the Tower to the AOM and work began that same year.^[13] The project was spearheaded by the American real estate developerWylie Tuttle, who enlisted a consortium of 17 French insurance companies and seven banks in the $140 million multiple-building project, but later distanced himself from the project until his 2002 obituary revealed that the building was his original "brainchild".^{[14][15][16][17]}

In 1969, the decision to build a shopping centre was finally made, andGeorges Pompidou, then President of the Republic, wanted to provide the capital with modern infrastructure. Despite a major controversy, the construction of the tower was started.

For geographer Anne Clerval, this construction symbolises theservice economy of Paris in the 1970s resulting from deindustrialisation policies which, from the 1960s, favoured "bypassing by space the most working class strongholds at the time".^[18]

The Tour Montparnasse was built between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station. The first stone was laid in 1970 and the inauguration took place in 1973.

The foundations of the tower are made up of 56 reinforced concrete pillars sinking 70 m (230 ft) underground. For urban planning reasons, the tower had to be built just above a Metro line; and to avoid using the same support and weakening it, the Metro structures were protected by a reinforced concrete shield. Long horizontal beams were installed in order to free up the space needed in the basement to fit out the tracks for trains.^[19]

The tower is mainly occupied by offices. Various companies and organisations have settled in the tower:

• TheInternational Union of Architects,Axa and MMA insurers, the mining and metallurgy companyEramet,Al Jazeera
• Political parties have used campaign offices, such asFrançois Mitterrand in 1974, theRPR in the late 1970s,Emmanuel Macron'sLa République En Marche! in 2016,Benoît Hamon since 2018
• Previously Tour Maine-Montparnasse housed the executive management ofAccor.^[20]

The 56th floor, with its terrace, bars and restaurant, has been used for private or public events. During the 1980s and 1990s, the liveNational Lottery was cast onTF1 from the 56th floor.

French urban climberAlain Robert scaled the building's exterior glass and steel wall to the top twice, in 1995 and in 2015, both times using no equipment or safety devices.^[21][22] The feat was also undertaken by Polish climber Marcin Banot in 2020 and 2023.^[23][24]

The tower's simple architecture, large proportions and monolithic appearance have been often criticised by Parisians for being out of place in Paris's landscape.^[25] As a result, two years after its completion the construction of buildings over seven storeys tall in the city centre was banned in Paris. This ban was lifted in 2015.^[26][27]

The design of the tower predates architectural trends of more modern skyscrapers today that are often designed to provide a window for every office. Only the offices around the perimeter of each floor of Tour Montparnasse have windows.

It is said as a joke among the Parisians, that the tower's observation deck enjoys the most beautiful view in all of Paris because it is the only place from which the tower cannot be seen.^[28]

A 2008 poll of editors onVirtualtourist voted the building the second-ugliest building in the world, behindBoston City Hall in the United States.^[29]

In 2005, studies showed that the tower containedasbestos material. When inhaled, for instance during repairs, asbestos is acarcinogen. Monitoring revealed that legal limits of fibres per litre were surpassed and, on at least one occasion, reached 20 times the legal limit. Due to health and legal concerns, some tenants abandoned their offices in the building.^[30]

Removal of the asbestos was originally expected to take three years.^{[citation needed]} After a nearly three-year delay, removal began in 2009 alongside regular operation of the building. In 2012, it was reported the tower was 90% free of asbestos.^[31]

• List of tallest buildings and structures in the Paris region

  Media related toTour Montparnasse at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Photos of Tour Montparnasse
• Tour Montparnasse
• Pictures and info
• The Parisian Guide