City Plans Rival to Eiffel Tower

It is a city so protective of its romantic skyline that skyscrapers have been banned in the historic centre for more than 30 years. But Paris yesterday unveiled plans for a vast glass-enveloped office block that will become its tallest commercial building and loftiest construction since the Eiffel tower was inaugurated in 1889.

The "Phare" (Lighthouse) tower, designed by the Californian architect Thom Mayne, is a gently sloping eco-friendly glass construction complete with wind-turbines on its roof, that will be the centrepiece of an ambitious overhaul of La Défense on the western outskirts of the city.

Once described as Paris's "mini-Manhattan", La Défense is one of Europe's biggest purpose-built business districts, built by François Mitterrand in 1989 to mark the bicentenary of the revolution. But recently, La Défense has begun planning a new generation of high-rises to compete with new urban business quarters in Moscow, Madrid and Amsterdam.

At 300 metres high, the Phare will be the first building to approach Gustav Eiffel's tower, which was originally 300 metres tall when built, but now soars a further 24 metres with its aerial.

At a cost of €900m (£610m), the building, which will offer 130,000 square metres of office space, is due to be completed in 2012. But just as the Eiffel tower was initially described by the author Guy de Maupassant as "an odious tower of extreme bad taste", the French capital is braced for the backlash.

The newspaper Le Monde warned yesterday that a "hatred for concrete" and fear of high buildings was common among Parisians still traumatised by the 210 metre-tall 1970s monstrosity, Tour Montparnasse.