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Adored for its architectural treasures from the 18th and 19th century and lauded for buildings that are low-rise and accessible, the city of Paris has taken a major risk by opening the way to new towers up to 200m-high.
Since 1977, the city has had a law that
limits the height of any new building to 37m, a measure imposed after a terrible eyesore, the 210m Tour Montparnasse, rose in one of the city's southwestern districts.
Since then, new skyscrapers have been concentrated in La Defense, a business district just outside Paris's western rim, leaving the city's skyline dominated by the 324m Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur, the Opera and other delights.
The taboo has now been broken by city Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who this week pushed through a decision that will ease the ban in six rundown areas.
From next year, the maximum height will be raised to 50m for apartment blocks, and to 150m or even 200m for commercial buildings.
The easing will only apply to six districts that abut the peripherique ring road that encircles the capital, dividing it from the often-grim suburbs beyond.
Paris is becoming increasingly expensive and gentrified, and Delanoe, a socialist, argues that rejuvenation lies in low-cost housing. By boosting the building height to 50m, or around 15 storeys, the city could construct between 20 and 30 per cent more homes on available land, he argues.
"Parisians have been hesitant about the very idea of building very high buildings," Delanoe admitted. "But we won't make the mistakes of the past again."
His deputy, Anne Hidalgo, said that building requests would be closely vetted and submitted to local consultation, and insisted "this is not a blanket lifting" of the restrictions for all of Paris.
Delanoe tried to scrap the ban in his first term as mayor, but was thwarted by opposition from the Greens, who at the time governed in coalition with his socialists.
But the Greens lost ground in the city elections this year, and Delanoe no longer needs them in his coalition. He pushed through the decision thanks to support from communist and other far-left city councillors. The Greens and the Union for a People's Majority (UMP), the conservative party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, voted against.
Critics fear that the limited, cautious easing is only the first step. Inevitably, towers will creep into other districts, ruining Paris' skyline with office blocks and destroying its neighbourly, human-scale feel, they said.
"Towers are to urban development what 4WDs are to cars. They are pretty, flashy gadgets, symbols of domination and power but completely inappropriate," said Greens leader Denis Baupin. "It's clunky, wasteful, bling-bling architecture."
The UMP leader Jean-Francois Lamour lacerated the notion of implanting high-rise social housing in Paris, given the evidence it had bred crime and alienation elsewhere.
"We are reproducing time bombs," Lamour said. "In 10 years, we will have the same social problems as today, but worse, over 50m instead of 37m."
The mood among the public and opinion leaders is equally fearful.
Some of France's top architects, such as Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault and Jacques Ferrier, had been lobbying hard for the 37m ceiling to be scrapped.
They say it is possible to design a building that is striking, accessible and neighbourly, and whose use of ground space, mixing offices and housing, will help to stem urban sprawl and commuting, they argue.
"Let's build nice towers, we are capable of it," said architect Claude Vasconi.
He predicted that, in any case, the core of Paris so beloved of tourists - defined by the boulevards laid down by Haussmann in the 19th century - is unlikely to be touched.
Henri Gaudin, an architect who believes in low-rise neighbourhoods, points out that Belleville and Menilmontant are among the most densely-populated and chummiest parts of Paris, yet their buildings are typically only six or seven storeys high.
"Towers create deserts," he said. "All high structures are doomed to solitude, because they have to be a certain distance from other towers. In society, life happens at ground level. Up in the clouds, social life becomes rarified, because it needs exchanges, encounters and eye contact."
