Editing Tour Montparnasse (section)

==History==
===The project===
In 1934, the [[Gare Montparnasse|old Montparnasse station]] located on the edges of the similarly named boulevard, opposite the Rue de Rennes, appeared ill-suited to traffic. The city of Paris planned to reorganise the district and build a new station. But the project, entrusted to Raoul Dautry (who would give his name to the square of the tower), met strong opposition and was cancelled.

In 1956, on the occasion of the adoption of the new master plan for the Paris traffic plan, the ''Société d'économie mixte pour l'Aménagement du secteur Maine Montparnasse'' (SEMMAM) was created, as well as the ''l'Agence pour l'Opération Maine Montparnasse'' (AOM). Their mission was to redevelop the neighbourhood, which required razing many streets, often dilapidated and unsanitary. The site then occupied up to {{convert|8|ha}}.

In 1958, the first studies of the tower were well launched, but the project was strongly criticised because of the height of the building. A controversy ensued, led by the [[Minister of Public Works (France)|Minister of Public Works]] [[Edgard Pisani]], who obtained the support of [[André Malraux]], then Minister of Culture under General [[de Gaulle]] which led to slowdowns in the project.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 June 2013 |title=La Tour Montparnasse fête ses quarante ans... de désamour |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2013/06/17/tour-montparnasse-40-ans-histoire_n_3456091.html |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Le HuffPost |language=fr}}</ref>

However, the reconstruction of the Montparnasse station a few hundred metres south of the old one and the destruction of the Gare du Maine, which was included in the real estate project of the AOM, a joint agency which brought together the four architects: Urbain Cassan, Eugène Beaudouin and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien, was carried out from June 1966 to the spring of 1969 with the assistance of the architect Jean Saubot.

In 1968, André Malraux granted the building permit for the Tower to the AOM and work began that same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Batiactu |date=11 March 2008 |title=L'histoire de la tour Montparnasse (diaporama) |url=https://www.batiactu.com/edito/histoire-tour-montparnasse-diaporama-8511.php |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Batiactu |language=fr}}</ref> The project was spearheaded by the American real estate developer [[Wylie Tuttle]], who enlisted a consortium of 17 French insurance companies and seven banks in the $140&nbsp;million multiple-building project, but later distanced himself from the project until his 2002 obituary revealed that the building was his original "brainchild".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=6 April 2002 |title=Wylie F. L. Tuttle, 79, Force Behind Paris Tower |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/06/nyregion/wylie-f-l-tuttle-79-force-behind-paris-tower.html |access-date=31 August 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bienvenue sur le site de Sefri-Cime |url=http://www.sefricime.fr/fr/immobilier_entreprise_sieges_sociaux/sefri_cime_savoir_faire/sefri_cime_realisation_grande_envergure_atypique/pres_detaillee/sefri_cime_paris_tour_montparnasse.php |access-date=31 August 2021 |website=sefricime.fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Marlowe |first=Lara |title=Tour Montparnasse contaminated with asbestos |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/tour-montparnasse-contaminated-with-asbestos-1.1628848 |access-date=31 August 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Louise Huxtable |first=Ada |date=28 May 2002 |title=The Myth of the Invulnerable Skyscraper |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1022544349409402440 |access-date=31 August 2021 |issn=0099-9660}}</ref>

In 1969, the decision to build a shopping centre was finally made, and [[Georges Pompidou]], then President of the Republic, wanted to provide the capital with modern infrastructure. Despite a major controversy, the construction of the tower was started.

For geographer Anne Clerval, this construction symbolises the [[service economy]] of Paris in the 1970s resulting from deindustrialisation policies which, from the 1960s, favoured "bypassing by space the most working class strongholds at the time".<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 October 2013 |title=Anne Clerval: "À Paris, le discours sur la mixité sociale a remplacé la lutte des classes" |url=https://www.humanite.fr/anne-clerval-paris-le-discours-sur-la-mixite-sociale-remplace-la-lutte-des-classes |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=L'Humanité |language=fr}}</ref>

===Construction===
[[File:Highpoints of Paris.svg|upright=1.5|The Tour Montparnasse in comparison to other tall structures in Paris|thumb]]
The Tour Montparnasse was built between 1969 and 1973 on the site of the old Montparnasse station. The first stone was laid in 1970 and the inauguration took place in 1973.

The foundations of the tower are made up of 56 reinforced concrete pillars sinking {{convert|70|m|abbr=on}} underground. For urban planning reasons, the tower had to be built just above a Metro line; and to avoid using the same support and weakening it, the Metro structures were protected by a reinforced concrete shield. Long horizontal beams were installed in order to free up the space needed in the basement to fit out the tracks for trains.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Batiactu |date=11 March 2008 |title=L'histoire de la tour Montparnasse |url=https://www.batiactu.com/edito/histoire-tour-montparnasse-20594.php |access-date=23 May 2021 |website=Batiactu |language=fr}}</ref>