Move over, Pyramids at Giza, Luxor, and Las Vegas! The world’s list of triangular polyhedron-shaped buildings just got a little longer. After initially being rejected by the Paris’ planning commision in 2014, the city’s first skyscraper in 40 years is finally moving towards construction. Designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron, the Tour Triangle is expected to rise some 590' above the 15th arrondissement, and will be the city’s third tallest structure—behind the Eiffel Tower and the much-maligned Tour Montparnasse (the very building that inspired the city to limit building heights after it was built in 1973). Those height restrictions came down in 2010, and the city is currently undergoing a vast urbanization and greening effort by consolidating itself with its surrounding suburbs.
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Tour Triangle plays into this scheme by adding to the city’s public space while adding somewhat affordable apartments to the city’s housing stock. Located on a historical axis linking the 15th arrondissement with the surrounding communities of Issy-les-Moulineaux and Vanves, the 42-story tower’s extruded trapezoidal shape is optimized to help the tower “disappear” into the Parisian sky, ideally mitigating its impact on the city’s skyline. The triangular profile and tapering silhouette grant residents excellent views of the city’s monuments while also turning the giant structure into a sort of sundial that only casts slivers of shadows against its surroundings. The building is capped by a panoramic restaurant accessed by a pair of inclined elevators.
Aside from the Tour Triangle, 65-year-old designers Jacques Herzog and and Pierre de Meuron are known for designing the Tate Modern in 1995 (as well as proposing a new wing to the building currently under construction) and for their epic collaboration with Ai Weiwei for the Beijing Olympic Stadium.
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