Alternative Views: La Défense
December 15, 2009 | Laura Carroll
La Grande Arche de La Défense at night. Photo: Florian Gerus
Americans head to Europe for new experiences.
New architecture? That’s certainly something we can go some time without seeing. Considering that half of America was thrown up within the last 50 years – and probably rebuilt or remodeled six times since – the centuries-old skyline is one of Europe’s greatest perks.
In Paris, you’ll find lots of old. Old streets, old gargoyles, old parks with their old fountains and statues – there’s no shortage of awe-inspiring, romance-evoking, classical structures that make Paris so, well, Parisian. But you should, at least once, seek out the city’s new.
Have a look at Paris’s iconic Arc de Triomphe from its twentieth-century version: La Grande Arche de la Défense. Mirroring its inspiration, the Grande Arche sits at the tail-west end of Paris’s Historical Axis and a feature of La Défense, Europe’s largest business district. Built by the Danish architect Otto van Spreckelsen, the Arche is a marble and glass structure illuminated both from the day’s sun and the night’s lights – when it cuts through the Parisian skyline like a platinum picture frame.
Stepping foot into La Défense is a bit like stepping into outer space after spending even a small amount of time in Paris. Constructed in the mid-twentieth century, the district boasts nothing but slender, shiny buildings, and the contrast between Paris’s past and its (relative) present seems almost unnatural. The district as a whole is not much to look at, but the Arche is undeniably beautiful – a jut into the future after stepping back in time; one spectrum far more classic than my U.S. surroundings, the other far more modern. I felt like I was looking into two different worlds as I laid on the Arche’s sun-bathed steps, peering out into the rest of the city. I was glad to see them both.
