Tour Initiale, Office skyscraper in La Défense, France
Tour Initiale is a 109-metre office tower in La Défense, completed in 1966, with 30 floors and a facade of grey-green glass panes set in a dense grid. Curved glass imported from the United States wraps each vertical edge, and a dark band near the top carries white lettering and a logo. Its design drew on Lever House and Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax tower.
The tower was completed in 1966 as Tour Nobel, one of the first two office towers in La Défense, built under the first contract signed by the EPAD with the developer SEMIIC on 2 August 1960. It was later renamed Tour Roussel-Hoechst, then renovated and given its current name, Tour Initiale, in 2003. Its construction prompted the drafting of France's IG.H. regulations for high-rise buildings.
The tower's name changed with its owners: first PB 31, then Tour Nobel, then Tour Roussel-Hoechst, and since 2003 Tour Initiale. Its glass facade was designed by engineer Jean Prouvé with draughtsman Robert Giudici, and the building appears in the films Trois Milliards sans ascenseur and L'Aile ou la Cuisse.
The building is easily accessible on foot through the streets and plazas of La Défense and sits in a central location within the business district. Visitors can explore its exterior design and the surrounding area, which form part of the larger urban complex.
The tower's rounded glass corners were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine (1950), and the curved panes had to be imported from the United States. Its central core was built using the sliding-formwork technique, and the whole 13-month site helped establish France's high-rise (IGH) regulations.
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