Toulouse tower dominates Canal du Midi
Skyscraper will have views across to the Pyrenees as gateway to city’s business sector
A huge glass tower, 150m high and garlanded with gardens, is set to dominate the skyline in the ‘pink city’ as Toulouse plans its first skyscraper.
Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc told reporters Toulouse was “a city that is climbing and for that we need a symbol, a strong sign”.
To be called Occitanie Tower and rising above the Canal du Midi, the tower is designed by American Daniel Libeskind - the architect who created the master plan for New York’s World Trade Center One - and Toulouse studio Francis Cardete, Kardham.
The €130million project will have 40 floors totalling 30,000m2 with 11,000m2 of office space, up to 120 flats, a Hilton hotel and panoramic restaurant, shops plus – as it is built on SNCF land – railway offices.
Its sculpted shape, like intertwined ribbons, will feature a garden sliding down and round the tower’s glass sides, with the garden designed by landscape architect Nicolas Gilsoul.
Planned for completion in 2021/22, it is on the site of the former postal sorting centre at Gare Matabiau. The tower is away from the city centre, the Capitol and the Garonne river but will have views south to the Pyrenees, less than 100km away.
It will be unlike the rest of the city’s pink-brick architecture, being nearly three times the height of Basilique St Sernin and will become the gateway to the city’s business sector.
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