Widening the debate on whether or not Paris should preserve its 19-century skyline or “embrace innovation,” Parisian city council members have rejected the controversial, 180-meter “Triangle Tower” designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Despite the 83-78 vote, the fight carries on; Mayor Anne Hidalgo has declared the veto to be invalid and hopes a new round of balloting will rule in favor of the tower. Though, in a city that fears of loosing its “existing urban fabric to skyscrapers,” it seems unlikely that the tower will be built.
When first introduced to the public more than three years ago, then Mayor Bertrand Delanoe planned to end the city’s 37-meter height limit in parts of the French capital to make way for the 42-story structure, which Jacques Herzog described to be “more like a topography of a vertical city,” rather than a tower. Its triangular shape was designed to “limit the shadow on neighbors” near Paris’ main exhibition center at Porte de Versailles on the city's southern edge.
If built, the office tower would be nearly half the height of the 301-meter Eiffel Tower. However, critics argue that the project would “disfigure” the city’s skyline similar to the highly criticized Montparnasse tower.
