Tour Montparnasse renovation halted amid disagreements between owners
Tall, dark and hated: plan to renovate ‘Paris’s ugliest building’ put on hold
Tour Montparnasse modernisation project at a standstill after clashes over pricing and other issues
It has been called a carbuncle on the Paris skyline, a sombre skyscraper where visitors to its viewing platform often joke that the city looks better when you can’t see the building itself.
The much-maligned Tour Montparnasse, a lone, dark monolith with tinted windows rising above a historic neighbourhood in the south of the city, is once again at the centre of controversy after its long-awaited renovation was halted this week because of disagreements between its many private co-owners.
The tower, which opened in 1973, is the tallest skyscraper in inner-city Paris and is also considered its ugliest building.
For more than a decade, plans have been thrashed out to overhaul the building and brighten its looming presence and modernise the area around it. Architects had planned to entirely refit the 210-metre structure with a new glass exterior, adding vegetation throughout, with a garden terrace on the 16th floor and an agricultural greenhouse at the top. The plans included a hotel on three floors of the 59-storey building, as well as new office and leisure spaces.
But alongside a significant operation to remove asbestos, the estimated price of the project more than doubled to €800m (£688m).
The building’s private co-owners, which include French investment funds and insurers, met this week for a final vote on the start of a first phase of renovation, with asbestos removal, interior stripping and a partial facade removal. After clashes over plans and pricing, more than three-quarters of the co-owners voted against the project.
It was the last opportunity to launch the project before the building permit granted for the tower’s renovation expires at the end of November. There are now concerns that the building, which has been emptied and closed for renovation, will loom deserted. This summer, fire officers intervened after bits of glass fell off the building and landed on the street below, although no one was hurt.
“Everyone needs to come to their senses,” said Philippe Goujon, the rightwing mayor of Paris’s 15th district where the tower is located. He told Agence France-Presse: “I cannot accept seeing a project that took 10 years to develop thrown away, or allowing this world-renowned landmark to fall into neglect.”
Four of the co-owners who still want a renovation, including the tycoon Xavier Niel, said in a joint statement: “We would like all the co-owners, financial partners and public authorities to meet soon to examine all the solutions to transform the Montparnasse Tower.”
Some co-owners hope that a new, scaled-down project could be agreed upon.
Separately, the architect Renzo Piano has been tasked with overhauling the shopping centre beneath the tower and other buildings nearby, opening up new pedestrian spaces and moving from grey concrete to a greener, planted space. Local officials want to avoid delays to that project if the tower’s renovation stalls.
The office of the Socialist mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, said it wanted “an alternative solution to be proposed” so the site does not stay at a standstill.
Opposition councillors on the left have suggested the “obsolete” tower should instead come down and be replaced by a park that would have a cooling effect during summer heatwaves.
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