La Defense, Paris
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La Defense, Paris
On the
border of Neuilly-sur-Seine is Paris’ major
business district, La Defense. It is located
west of the city, and is at the center of an
oval free way loop encompassing the
Hauts-de-Seine municipalities of Puteax,
Nanterre and Courbevoie.
Around the district’s Grand Arche and
esplanade, called the le
Parvis, stand
Paris’ tallest skyscrapers.
La Defense
occupies 77.5 acres of land, and is home to
over seventy modern glass and steel
structures where more than a hundred
thousand people go to work every day. Having
more than three million square meters worth
of office space, La Defense is regarded as
the largest business district in
all of
Europe.
La Defense is named after the La Defense de
Paris statue built in 1884 in honor of the
soldiers who fought for the city during the
Franco-Prussian War.
Tourists are often
misled by the district’s name into believing
that the area is a military zone.
The first structures in the area were built
in September 1958 when the Public
Establishment for Installation of La Defense
(EPAD) buildings started replacing the old
factories, farms and shanties in the city.
The very first building in La Defense is the
Center of New Industries and Technologies or
the CNIT. It opened in 1958, and is
considered to be a member of Paris’ “first
generation” skyscrapers.
