La Defense

La Défense (pronounced /la de.fɑ̃s/) is a modern business district located west of Paris, as an extension of the “axe historique” (historical axis) that begins at the Louvre and continues through the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysées avenue, the Arc de Triomphe, and to the bridge of Neuilly and the Arch of La Défense or Grande Arche. It extends over the municipalities of Puteaux, Courbevoie and Nanterre (all in the department of Hauts-de-Seine). This district is essentially made up of office skyscrapers, connected by an immense pedestrian esplanade (Le Parvis) of 31 hectares. The hanging gardens and sixty works of art make it a true open-air museum and a walk much appreciated by the people who live or work there. The inhabitants of La Défense and those who work there are called “Défensois”.

It is the first business district in Europe by the size of its office park, the second in Europe by the volume of financial activities after the City of London. It is ranked as the fourth most attractive business district in the world, according to a study published by the auditing company EY in 2017. The district is home to the headquarters of many French and foreign multinational companies, as well as the European Banking Authority.

Developed in the early 1960s, La Defense is mostly made up of high-rise buildings intended mainly for offices, totaling about 3 million square meters. La Defensa is still a mixed neighborhood: it has nearly 600,000 m² of housing and the opening of the Les Quatre-temps shopping center in 1981 made La Defensa a commercial hub in the Ile-de-France region. In 2009, the neighborhood had 2,500 companies, with around 180,000 employees and 20,000 inhabitants spread across 71 towers.

Currently its tallest tower is the First Tower.

History

Its name comes from the monument La Défense de Paris created as a tribute to the soldiers who defended the city during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It is a sculpture by Louis-Ernest Barrias sculpted in bronze and inaugurated in 1883 on what was the Courbevoie roundabout and always visible on Le Parvis.

In September 1958, the Public Establishment for the planning of La Défense (Établissement public pour l'aménagement de La Défense, EPAD) was created by the State to build, manage and animate the district. La Défense begins to take shape. A first Planning Plan was approved by the State in 1964. The first buildings were built (Esso, the Nobel Tower...) and little by little the factories, nearby cabins and some farms gained ground. The Center for New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) designed by the architects: Robert Camelot, Jean de Mailly and Bernard Zehrfuss, planned in 1956, before the EPAD, was inaugurated in 1958 by General Charles De Gaulle on the occasion of the exhibition < i>Les Floralies. The towers that obey this first plan, called first generation, are all of identical morphology: a base of 42 x 24 meters, limited to a height of 100 meters and a surface area of 30,000 m². In 1966, the Nobel Tower (by architect Jean de Mailly) was the first to be built in La Défense.

At the beginning of the 1970s, to respond to considerable demand, second generation towers appeared. The 1964 plan is modified to increase the surface area of the properties. The 100,000 m² perimeters appear in buildings such as the Fiat Tower (today Areva), 184 m high and 44 floors. Starting in 1973, the economic crisis severely slowed down the development of this district: for 4 years not a single m² of offices were sold.

Since the early 1980s, to implement the construction of La Défense, third generation towers have been built, on a more economical model: less wide and less tall (such as the Pascal, Voltaire towers and the entire Michelet Quarter). In 1981, the largest shopping center in Europe (at the time) was created: Les Quatre Temps (100,000 m²). In 1982, the EPAD, under the impetus of President François Mitterand, launched the Tête Défense competition that would lead to the construction of the Grande Arche (Great Arch). During this same period, hotels were built, the CNIT was remodeled (1989) and line 1 of the Paris metro, inaugurated on April 1, 1992, was extended, bringing this district closer to Paris.

In 1993, La Défense experienced its second crisis. I would have to wait until 1997 for a spectacular restart to emerge. Today, La Défense is the largest business district in Europe.

The main companies installed there are: SFR, Société Générale, Total, Aventis, Arcelor. The largest tower is Total, built in 1985. With 48 floors and 187 meters high, it is the second largest tower in France after the Montparnasse Tower; It should be noted that the two towers are the work of the same architects Roger Saubot and François Julien.

A short distance from the Tour Total are the Tour T1 and the Tour Granite, completed in 2008. On the other hand, Bernard Bled, director general of the EPAD, proposed on December 2, 2005 to the board of directors of the EPAD a major development plan involving the construction of 850,000 m² of offices and 100,000 m² of new housing, the construction of a tower of 400 meters high and the renovation of the existing towers. The State must respond during 2006 to this plan, the completion of which, scheduled for 2020, would give a new dimension to La Défense.

Tallest buildings in La Défense

Skyscraper more than 90 meters high

Coming soon

Unapproved projects

1. Tour Sans Fin (1989): 425 m

Government

• The Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer has its headquarters at the Tour Voltaire in Puteaux and La Défense.
• The Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing in the Great Arche.

Education

Paris La Défense brings together the Pôle universitaire Léonard-de-Vinci cluster and 4 business schools: EDC Paris Business School, ESSEC Business School, ICN Graduate Business School and IÉSEG School of Management.

Figures

• Divided into 12 sectors
• 31 hectares of explanade and pedestrian walks
• 11 hectares of green spaces
• 3 million m2 of offices
• 150,000 employees
• 20,000 inhabitants
• 1,500 installed companies, including 14 of the 20 major nationals and 15 of the 50 major global corporations
• 60 sculptures of contemporary art
• Surrounded by a peripheral road (the Boulevard Circulaire)
• Communicated by the T2 line of the tram, the Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare, RER A, metro line 1 and 16 RATP bus lines