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TOUR FIRST
Paris, France
MAJESTIC TRANSFORMATION ALONG THE SEINE RIVER
Tour AXA, originally built in 1974, is located in the heart of La Défense, the business district of Paris. After three decades, it was time for a major change. The previous owners, AXA Real Estate and Beacon Capital Partners, wanted to break the continuity of the skyline and revive the area with a soaring new building.
Description
Their plan was ambitious. The changes needed to be dramatic, but done quickly in a congested area of Paris. Rather than demolish the existing tower, the building would be stripped down and a new tower designed and constructed around the old metal framework. All this was achieved in remarkable time – just four years, from 2007 to 2011. As the business district of Paris grew over the years, so too did the number of people heading in and out of the old Tour AXA. Especially during the lunch time rush, handling capacity was an issue. Because the new building would use the same elevator shafts, another solution had to be utilized through means other than adding new elevators. To achieve the required increase in people flow, KONE implemented its KONE Destination control system (DCS) with excellent results to the passenger elevators. The DCS uses intelligent assessment of vertical travel needs based on the floor selections of users to minimize the number of stops and optimize the vertical flow in the building. KONE’s solution delivered excellent eco-efficiency while nearly doubling the number of people who move throughout the tower.
Building facts
- Completed: 2011
- Height: Tour AXA (old tower) 162 m; Tour First (new tower): 231 m
- Floors: Tour AXA (old tower) 40; Tour First (new tower) 51
- Total floor area: 80,000 sqm
- Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox and SRA
- Building owner: Beacon Capital Partners; AXA Real Estate (previous owner)
- Developer: Altarea Cogedim
- Contractor: Bouygues Bâtiment Ile de France
- Tenants: Ernst & Young and Euler Hermes (member of ALLIANZ)
KONE solutions
- 18 KONE MiniSpace™ passenger elevators
- 2 KONE MiniSpace™ freight elevators
- 1 KONE MonoSpace® elevator
- 3 KONE MonoSpace® freight elevators
- 4 KONE MonoSpace® parking elevators
- 2 KONE TravelMaster™ 110 escalators
- KONE Destination control system