Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
Several windows of the Tour Montparnasse, the tallest intra-muros skyscraper in Paris (209 metres), fell to the ground, so much so that the firefighters were forced to erect a safety perimeter around the tower: the facts, reports Le Parisiendate back to yesterday. No injuries were reported.
The windows down from the upper floors and the streets closed
Inaugurated in 1973, the Tour Montparnasse is waiting to get the green light for a vast renovation campaign that is struggling to get started. Yesterday, writes the Parisian newspaper, the glass panes of several windows on the upper floors fell and firefighters then intervened to remove other windows at risk of collapsing. In parallel, he specifies Le Parisiena security perimeter was erected, with the closure of rue du Départ and rue Edgar-Quinet, near the Gare Montparnasse, among the busiest train stations in Paris.
The 800 million plan and the asbestos issue
A few months ago, the Tour Montparnasse was evacuated in view of the major renovation plan expected by Parisians. «The project must allow us to have a modern tower, open to the city, less energy-intensive, with an agricultural greenhouse on the roofs», underlines the mayor of the 15th arrondissement, Philippe Goujon, speaking of «one of the most important urban projects» of the capital. But the plan, estimated at around 800 million euros, is still blocked.
Last Tuesday, LFPI (La Financière Patrimoine d’Investissement), the main owner of the tower, spoke out against starting the works. Reason? Asbestos abatement costs tripled from 30 to 90 million euros in just nine months. «The project is too important for Paris. I’m not saying it will be done without difficulty, but we won’t abandon it”, assures Goujon, even if time is running out: with the construction site expected to begin in September, before the building permit expires on 26 November. Meanwhile, the mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, has called a crisis summit for next week to try to reach a solution as soon as possible.
From symbol of modernity to “empty specter”
Symbol of modernity in the Seventies, the Tour Montparnasse has become an immense empty specter in the heart of Paris. The idea is to give it a new life, with offices, a hotel, shops, services and even an agricultural greenhouse on the top floor. In clear discontinuity with the rest of the Haussmannian skyline of Paris, the skyscraper has never completely entered the hearts of the natives. In France, with an old joke, it is said that the top floor of the Tour Montparnasse is the best place in Paris, the only one from which you can appreciate the breathtaking panorama of the Ville Lumière without seeing it.