The concrete and glass cube

For today's blip, I decided to take a shot of the famous "Grande Arche de la Défense", situated in the business district of Paris known as La Défense. For those of you who may be interested, here are a few interesting facts about this somewhat strange 'building'.

It was the initiative of the late President of France, François Mitterand in 1982, to hold a competition for a great national monument. There were obviously many, many entries, but the winning entry went to the Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen and Danish engineer Erik Reitzel for their 20th century version of the famous Arc de Triomphe. Construction began in 1985 but the architect Spreckelsen resigned from the project a year later and handed over all architectural responsibilities to a French architect, his former associate, Paul Andreu Reitzel. The monument was completed three years later in 1989 and was inaugurated in July of that year with grand military parades to mark the bicentennial of the French revolution. The position of this monument is quite unique as it forms a part of what is known as the 'Axe historique' which runs through Paris, along with the Arc de Triomphe. The dimensions of this construction are 110 metres wide, 110 metres high and yes, you guessed it....110 metres long ! In fact it is the shape of a cube. The material used includes prestressed concrete with glass and Carrara marble from Italy for the frame. It was actually built by the French civil engineering company "Bouygues". The monument is built above a metro (underground tube) station, an RER (railway station) and a motorway. As for the inhabitants of the building, the two sides of the structure contain government offices and the roof section was initially an exhibition centre where the Computing Museum was located. The roof section was also a very popular tourist attraction due to it's restaurant and magnificent views across Paris, but unfortunately, this section of the building is no longer open to visitors, otherwise I would have taken the lift for an even better photo! This is due to an accident which took place in the lifts in April 2010, and even though no injuries were thankfully incurred, the Department of Ecology who own the roof section decided to permanently close the museum, restaurant and viewing deck to the general public. Whilst it was intended to re-open these areas to the public once again in May this year, the date was postponed until June. However, during my visit this afternoon, it appeared that access is possible but only to authorised persons. So there you have it ! The history of the Grande Arche de la Défense. I initially intended to publish the photo I took from the top of the steps of this monument looking across the pedestrian precinct towards the Arc de Triomphe, which can be seen in the distance. However, I decided on this shot instead as it is more original. Next time I make the trip to this part of Paris I will turn the camera in the opposite direction.

As you can see from the lovely sky in the photo, the weather has been quite nice today, with actually NO rain! The rest of the week, and especially the weekend is looking more like Summer once again. Time to take off the wellies and put back on the sandals once again. I hope the weather is being kind to you too, wherever you may be and I thank you once again for your following and hope I haven't bored you with all this commentary. Take care and have a nice day/evening.