History & Civilisation
The zone starts making its impact on suburban Paris in 1950, when it is selected as the location for the CNIT exhibition hall by the Federation of Engineering Industries.
In September 1958, The Public Establishment for Installation of La Defense (EPAD) was created by the state to manage and bring life to the quarter. La Defense began designing itself: the first buildings (of which the Esso Tower was the very first) were built and began to slowly replace the city’s factories, shanties, and even a few farms. The Center of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) was built and first used in 1958. These "first generation" skyscrapers were all very similar in appearance, limited to a height of 100 meters. In 1966, the Nobel Tower was the first office building built in the area.
In the early 1970s, in response to great demand, a second generation of buildings began to appear. Unfortunately, the economic crisis in 1973 nearly halted all construction in the area. A third generation of towers began to appear in the early 1980s. The biggest commercial center in Europe (at the time), the Quatre Temps, was created in 1981. In 1982, the EPAD launched the Tête Defense competition to find a monument to complete the Axe historique, which eventually led to the construction of Grande Arche at the west end of the quarter. During the same period, hotels were constructed, the CNIT was restructured, and in 1992 Line 1 of the Paris Métro was extended to La Défense, which made the area readily accessible to even more of the city.
On Bastille Day 1990, French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre staged an ambitious concert at the site, using the Grande Arche and three of the area’s towers as projection screens, and building a pyramidal stage above the road. The free concert, titled simply Paris la Defense attracted two million spectators, stretching all the way back to the Arc de Triomphe. This beat Jarre’s own previous world record for the largest attendance for a musical concert.
After a stagnation in new development in the mid-1990s La Defense is once again expanding and is now the largest purpose-built business district in Europe.