La Defense
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La Défense [ ladeˈfɑ̃ːs ] is a modern high-rise district west of Paris in the Hauts-de-Seine department and is considered Europe's largest office center. From an administrative point of view, the cities of Courbevoie , Nanterre and Puteaux share the 160 hectare area.
The district, with a 1.2 km long and 250 m wide pedestrian zone, the planning of which began in 1955, is the seat of many banks and insurance companies. Impressive buildings include Tour First , Tour Majunga , Tour CB21 , Tour Total Coupole , Tour T1 , Tour Granite , Tour D2 , Tours Chassagne et Alicante , Cœur Défense and Tour Carpe Diem as well as the former exhibition hall known as CNIT , which is now partly a hotel , partly used as a business and congress center. The most famous building in the district, however, is the Grande Arche , a modern variant of the triumphal arch .
facts and figures
La Défense is divided into twelve sectors with 160 hectares, of which 31 hectares are stone slabs and 11 hectares are green. In total, there are over three million square meters of office space and 25,000 underground parking spaces for over 180,000 employees as well as 600,000 m² of living space in Europe's largest office city. 20,000 people live in the slightly more than 10,000 apartments and there are 2,600 hotel rooms available. 14 of the 20 largest French companies and 15 of the 50 largest corporations worldwide are represented among the 3,600 companies located here. Of the 3,600 resident companies, 1,500 are based in La Défense. There is around 230,000 m² of retail space in la Défense, 130,000 m² of which in the Les Quatre Temps shopping center alone , which is the most popular shopping center in France.
history
The name of the district is derived from the monument La Défense de Paris , which was erected in honor of the soldiers who defended the city during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ( French: défense "defense"). The bronze sculpture by Louis-Ernest Barrias was inaugurated in 1883 in the middle of a roundabout in Courbevoie. It was removed during the first construction phase of the Défense district and later placed back on the concrete slab exactly at its original location.
| Establishment public d'aménagement de La Défense (EPAD) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Institute of public right |
| founding | 1958 |
| Seat | Paris La Defense, France |
| Branch | Real estate industry |
| Website | http://www.ladefense.fr |
The hill on which the Grande Arche stands today was once called Chantecoq or Hahnensang . Even under Louis XV , the great axis of today's Avenue des Champs-Élysées was extended as an avenue up to this point; However, a windmill stood on the hill itself until well into the 19th century . The actual development of La Défense began with the establishment of the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement de La Défense (EPAD for short) in 1958. The task of this independent state building authority was to restore the traditional Parisian banking and office districts around the large boulevards and to relieve the Arc de Triomphe and provide the necessary infrastructure. In the same year, on a private initiative, the Center des nouvelles industries et technologies (CNIT, formerly: Center National de l'Industrie et Technique), a pilot building, was opened on the Défense hill.
In 1963 the new office district began to take shape. In the years to come, however, the building site first had to be made available through continuous renovation , as the area intended for development was workers' living quarters and factory grounds in the municipalities of Courbevoie, Nanterre and Puteaux. Initially, 850,000 m² of office space was to be created in regularly arranged towers. An important part of the development plan was the erection of a 40 hectare raised slab that was to accommodate the central pedestrian zone. From there, access to the individual buildings to be constructed was made. The access roads, parking spaces and other infrastructures were relocated to the area below the slab. In 1965, the Tour Esso ( demolished in 1993 for the benefit of the Cœur Défense ) opened the first office building. By 1970 the Nobel, Aquitaine, Europe and Aurore tours were also completed. At that time the Défense was a gigantic construction site . In the same year, the RER high-speed rail link , which connects La Défense with the Auber stations (near the Paris Opera ) and the Arc de Triomphe, was implemented. This created one of the basic requirements for the success of this new district on the edge of the big city.
The ecologically and economically turbulent 1970s also brought La Défense certain problems. A storm of protests rose in the summer of 1972 when it became clear that the new high-rise buildings would spoil the perspective of the Champs-Élysées. Prime Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing called for a construction freeze. The economic recession after the oil shock of 1973 also led to a phase of stagnation in construction projects. Peter Handke , who visited La Défense on February 22, 1974, wrote (in: When wishing still helped ): “La Défense should actually be a restricted zone - because the secrets of the technocratic world are being revealed outrageously there.” Despite that, at times very much In 1978 the government under Raymond Barre decided to continue building La Défense due to the critical media climate .
Now a new generation of smaller, more ecological high-rise buildings has been built. In 1981 a large shopping center (Les Quatre Temps) opened its doors. In 1983 the office building la Grande Arche ("The Big Arch") by the Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen was awarded a prize in an international competition and in 1989 it was officially opened. In step with the changing zeitgeist and with the growing success of La Défense, the role of private capital also increased. The SARI (Société d'administration et de réalisation d'investissements) under Christian Pellerin, for example, managed to buy building permits at low prices, especially in the stagnant years from 1973, which were subsequently successfully marketed. In the period that followed, the major axis, which was initially to end with the Spreckelsen gate, was further expanded to the west.
present
In the international competition launched in July 2007 on the initiative of the Etablissement Public de l'Aménagement de La Défense (EPAD) for the construction of an emblematic skyscraper called “Tour Signal” , five finalists were finally selected in the following March after an initial preselection made in January 2008 highlights: Jacques Ferrier Architectures , Foster + Partners , Studio Libeskind Architect , Atelier Jean Nouvel and Wilmotte et Associés . On May 27, 2008, the jury selected Jean Nouvel as the winner for his innovative project, which combines residential and office space with a hotel, shopping areas and landscaped recreational areas. In March 2010 it was announced that the project would no longer be pursued.
As a result of the financial crisis, in view of a rent level of 600 to 700 € / m² annually since 2008, an increased migration of companies based in La Défense to other suburbs of Paris, where the price of space for comparable offices at the beginning of 2009 was only 300 to 400 € / m² annually. The insurance giant Axa (to Nanterre ) has moved away . The aging of the first office buildings in La Défense is no longer considered to be contemporary. There is a lack of flexible office concepts there. The vacancy rate reached a high of around 14% in 2013. The problem has been recognized and great efforts have been made to address this problem. For example, Tour First , Tour Ariane and Tour Eqho were extensively renovated. With Tour Majunga , Tour T1 , Tour Granite , Tour D2 , Tour Carpe Diem , many other new, modern office towers were built. The Tour Saint Gobain , Tour Trinity , Tour Alto , L'Archipel , Tour Hekla and Landscape are currently under construction . In 2019, the vacancy rate reached only 4.9% - despite the numerous newly built office towers that brought more office space onto the market - a low that has not been reached for a long time. Further high-rise buildings are being planned. The quarter is currently being expanded to the west, where a former freight yard and its surroundings are being planned, which will better connect La Défense to Nanterre via the La Jetée pedestrian walkway and the Terrasses de Nanterre , which form an axis. The development by public transport is also being improved. In 2022, as part of the extension of the RER E to the west, the Nanterre-La Folie station is to be opened in the district and the RER E trains will also stop at La Défense station, where a separate platform hall will be built under the CNIT . Furthermore, Métrolinie 15 , which is part of the Grand Paris Express , will open to Nanterre-La Folie in 2025 and to La Défense in 2027.
On June 3, 2019, the European Banking Authority moved into its new headquarters in the Tour Europlaza .
The La Défense Jazz Festival takes place here and in the vicinity .
Construction site on the site of the former Nanterre-La Folie freight yard in 2018.
The Terrasses de Nanterre axis in 2018.
The Terrasses de Nanterre axis in 2018.
The La Jetée axis with a pedestrian walkway in 2018.
The Tour Saint Gobain skyscraper under construction in 2018.
education
Paris La Défense brings together the Pôle universitaire Léonard-de-Vinci cluster and 5 business schools : the EDC Paris Business School , the ESSEC Business School , the ICN Business School , the IÉSEG School of Management and the SKEMA Business School .
gallery
View of La Défense from the center of Paris.
View of La Défense from the Pont de Saint-Cloud .
View of La Défense from the Grande Arche.
The Bassin de Takis with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.
La Défense by night.
La Défense by night.
La Défense by night.
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See also
literature
- Robert Schediwy : City Pictures. Reflections on the change in architecture and urbanism. 2nd Edition. Lit, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7755-8 , p. 169 ff.
- Ernst Seidl: La Grande Arche in Paris. Form - Power - Sense (= writings on cultural studies. Vol. 17). Kovač, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-86064-702-4 (also: Frankfurt am Main, University, dissertation, 1994).
- Gertrud Vogler: La Défense: "Métro, boulot, dodo". With essays on architecture and politics by Ernst Seidl. Disadorno Edition, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-941959-04-0 .
swell
- ↑ Le quartier d'affaires de La Défense: La Défense, premier quartier d'affaires européen! CCI Paris Ile-de-France, accessed February 10, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c La Défense / Seine Arche sur Direction régionale de l'équipement d'Île-de-France, p. 19. (as of March 25, 2009), PDF
- ↑ http://www.paris360.de/urlaub-reisen/sehenswuerdheiten/la-defense accessed August 10, 2017.
- ↑ EPAD: Quelques cipher utiles afin de comprendre la. (As of March 19, 2007) http://www.ladefense.fr/epad_chiffres.php ( Memento of May 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Le quartier d'affaires de La Défense: La Défense, premier quartier d'affaires européen! CCI Paris Ile-de-France, accessed February 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Le quartier d'affaires de La Défense: La Défense, premier quartier d'affaires européen! CCI Paris Ile-de-France, accessed February 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Office tenants say goodbye to Paris . In: Handelsblatt . April 26, 2009.
- ↑ a b Le marché immobilier de La Défense a débuté l'année timidement .
- ↑ ÉTUDIER
Web links
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- Official website (French)
- List of high-rise buildings in La Défense
- La Défense at insecula (French)
- Tour Signal competition, EPAD website (French)
- Pictures of the development of La Défense from 1950 to today (French)
Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 32 " N , 2 ° 14 ′ 15" E