Cœur Défense

Coeur Défense

Year of construction: 2001
Architect : Jean-Paul Viguier
Surface area: 350.000 sq.m
Height: 2 towers of 160 m (40 floors), 3 buildings of 40 m (9 floors)

Address: 100-110, esplanade du Général de Gaulle - 92400 Courbevoie
Nearest car park: Centre - Grande Arche
Nearest metro station: La Défense Grande Arche

The Cœur Défense operation, completed in 2001 by Jean-Paul Viguier, embodies a profound architectural renewal, not only because of the importance of its programme but also because of its proximity to the esplanade and the clarity of its facades. It replaces one of the first buildings built in La Défense after the CNIT - Esso Standard's head office. The old building was dismantled in 1995 to gradually make way for a building with avant-garde aesthetic elements from the 1920s - bichromatic façades and rotunda-shaped buildings.

Deeply urban, Cœur Défense is served by four "streets" linking the different parts of the district. Its atrium serves as a public square on which Le Pouce de César could have sat enthroned. The 350,000 m² building is divided between two 160-metre-high towers and three 40-metre-high low-rise buildings.

A word about the architect

Associated with Jean-François Jodry (1944), Jean-Paul Viguier (1946) first worked in new towns such as Cergy-Pontoise and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. His work was then part of a neomodern movement. A style that gradually faded with the arrival of large orders - the French pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Seville in 1992.

In 1983, he won the first prize ex-aequo at the competition for the Tête Défense. Three years later, he entered the restricted competition for the Passage de l'Arche. In 1994, he joined forces with Henri la Fonta for the consultation for the Masséna district. The duo he formed with Jodry broke up in 1992. The Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés agency then took over the Coeur Défense project. In 2006, it wins the competition for the Majunga tower.

Coeur Défense

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