Tour Signal, Unfinished skyscraper project in La Défense, France.
Tour Signal was a planned skyscraper in the La Défense business district west of Paris, designed to combine offices, apartments, a hotel, and shops in one tower. The site sits at the western edge of the district, where La Défense meets the neighboring town of Puteaux.
Architect Jean Nouvel developed the design in the 2000s as part of broader plans to expand La Défense westward. The project never broke ground after the developers Medea and Layetana pulled out in 2009 following the financial crisis of the previous year.
Jean Nouvel's design wove curved ribbon shapes across the facade to echo French landscape forms. The idea was to introduce something organic into a district otherwise defined by glass and steel towers.
The site is on the western edge of La Défense, a district well served by metro and RER lines. Since the tower was never built, there is nothing to see on the spot, but the surrounding area gives a good sense of how the project would have sat within the skyline.
Tour Signal would have incorporated hanging gardens visible from the outside, woven directly into the tower's facade. This would have set it apart from the other towers nearby, where green space at height is almost nonexistent.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
