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27-567: Les Olympiades are designed similarly to the esplanade of La Défense . The Olympiades esplanade has maintained a rather important business and commercial activity, something that is not true of other projects in Paris and its suburbs. The northern part of the neighbourhood is typical of the 13th arrondissement, with the Parc de Choisy and Lycée Claude Monet at the northern edge of the Olympiades and

54-454: A nominal seating capacity of 30,681. For concerts , it can seat 40,000. Finally, a movable stand allows it also to be used for a variety of indoor sports, at various capacities, with a capacity of as low as 5,000 being possible. The venue also includes 33,000 square metres (360,000 sq ft) of office space, 300 student rooms, and shops, including a club shop, a brewery, and a gourmet restaurant. It hosted swimming and water polo at

81-470: A western suburb of Paris . Opened in October 2017, it was developed by the rugby union club Racing 92 , and replaced Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir as their home. It is Europe's largest indoor arena. Its naming rights are held by Paris La Défense, the management company of the nearby La Défense business district. The venue offers three separate configurations. In its rugby configuration, it has

108-557: Is a major business district in France's Paris metropolitan area , 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the city limits . It is located in Île-de-France region's department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbevoie , La Garenne-Colombes , Nanterre , and Puteaux . La Défense is Europe's largest purpose-built business district, covering 560 hectares (1,400 acres), for 180,000 daily workers, with 72 glass and steel buildings (of which 20 are completed skyscrapers , out of 24 in

135-544: Is the Eiffel Tower . On 9 September 2008, La Défense celebrated its 50th anniversary with a huge fireworks display. In December 2005, Bernard Bled , CEO and chairman of EPAD (La Defense Management and Development Office) announced an ambitious nine-year development plan called "La Defense 2006–2015" . This important modernisation plan has to give a new dimension to the district and focuses on four main axes: regenerate outdated skyscrapers, allow new buildings, improve

162-583: 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 more of the city. On Bastille Day 1990, French electronic composer Jean-Michel Jarre staged an ambitious concert at

189-417: The 2024 Summer Olympics and swimming at the 2024 Summer Paralympics . The arena was originally planned to open in 2014. Still, that date was delayed due to local protests. It eventually opened in October 2017, although Racing 92 played their first home game in the new arena when they hosted Toulouse on 22 December 2017. The arena's working name was changed from "Arena92" to "U Arena"; referencing

216-484: The Hauts-de-Seine department communes of Courbevoie , La Garenne-Colombes , Nanterre and Puteaux . La Défense is primarily a business district and hosts a population of 50,000 permanent residents and 75,000 students. La Défense is also visited by 8,000,000 tourists each year and houses an open-air museum . La Défense is named after the statue La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias , which

243-742: The Paris Rive Gauche project began. Starting a few hundred metres from the Olympiades, is the second large-scale urbanism project inside the city of Paris to be built since Italie 13, and they now form a geographic unity with a new influx of professionals and office, education, library, and other complexes, including the François Mitterrand Bibliothèque nationale de France . 48°49′42.35″N 2°21′18.51″E  /  48.8284306°N 2.3551417°E  / 48.8284306; 2.3551417 La D%C3%A9fense La Défense ( French: [la de.fɑ̃s] )

270-596: The Place d'Italie three blocks north. The eight tallest towers are each 104 metres (341 feet) tall and are named after cities that have hosted the Olympic games: Anvers ( Antwerp ), Athènes ( Athens ), Cortina ( Cortina d'Ampezzo ), Helsinki , Londres ( London ), Mexico ( Mexico City ), Sapporo , and Tokyo . Other residential buildings, which are wider than they are tall, complete the district. The opening in June 2007, of

297-613: The Tour First belongs to AXA , constructed in 1974. It is 231 metres (758 ft) high, has 50 floors, and is the highest inhabited building in the Paris area. This title was previously held by the Tour Montparnasse , which was the tallest inhabited building until the Tour First was renovated between 2007 and 2011, bringing it to its current height from a previous 159 metres (522 ft); the tallest structure in Paris

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324-532: The Paris region), and 3,500,000 square metres (38,000,000 sq ft) of office space. Around its Grande Arche and esplanade ("le Parvis"), La Défense contains many of the Paris urban area 's tallest high-rises. Westfield Les Quatre Temps , a large shopping mall in La Défense, has 220 stores, 48 restaurants and a 24-screen movie theatre. Paris La Défense Arena , the largest indoor arena in Europe,

351-455: The aspiration that a population of young professionals would be attracted to the complex offering multiple services (education, sports, etc.), a plan known and later criticized as Italie 13 . From 1975, its southern end began to attract Vietnamese and Chinese residents, who also populated the main Chinatown in Paris around the southern end of the complex. Since the end of Project Italie 13

378-446: The balance between offices and residential housing, and make the transport of local employees from their homes to La Défense easier. There are three aims: building 150,000 square metres (1,600,000 sq ft) of offices within demolition/rebuilding projects, building 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) of offices within new projects, and building 100,000 square metres (1,100,000 sq ft) of housing. In July 2006,

405-463: The configuration of the main stands, and the structure's shape, when viewed from the air, in November 2016. The name was changed a second time to the current Paris La Défense Arena on 12 June 2018. This followed a 10-year naming rights agreement with Paris La Défense. This company manages the nearby La Défense business district. The venue was initially planned to have a retractable roof, but it

432-592: The early 1970s, in response to great demand, a second generation of buildings began to appear, but 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 shopping centre in Europe (at the time), the Quatre Temps , was created in 1981. In 1982, the EPAD launched the Tête Défense competition to find a monument to complete

459-487: The government confirmed this plan, which has to be carried out around 2015. It is justified by the strong estate pressure, which plays in favour of building new skyscrapers near Paris. Those constructions have the advantage of being more economical than small buildings. But it will have to overcome some difficulties: the French economy faced a short-term slowdown; the government is trying to balance tertiary sector employment in

486-527: The new Métro station at Les Olympiades , as part of the driverless hi-speed Metro line 14 running every 4 minutes, brought Les Olympiades residents and visitors to the Olympiades complex and its esplanade — shops, restaurants, apartments, and recreational facilities — within 11-14 minutes of Saint-Lazare, Madeleine, and Pyramides on the opposite side of Paris and 2–4 minutes from the new Cour Saint-Émilion entertainment centre and Bibliothèque Nationale François Mitterrand. Les Olympiades were built with

513-577: The public an elaborate 3D animation film titled La Défense 2016 . Paris La Défense brings together the cluster of Leonardo da Vinci University Center , the IA Institut, a campus of EPITA and 4 business schools : EDC Paris Business School , ESSEC Business School , ICN Graduate Business School and IESEG School of Management It is also home to the European School of Paris-La Défense , an international primary and secondary school that

540-412: The singer La Trec set the video clip for their song Stay at La Défense in 1997. After a stagnation in new development in the mid-1990s, La Défense is once again expanding and is now the largest purpose-built business district in Europe. Major corporations headquartered at La Défense include Neuf Cegetel , Société Générale , TotalEnergies , Aventis , Areva , and Arcelor . The tallest skyscraper,

567-516: 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 Paris la Défense , 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 Jean Michel Jarre, German DJ Sash! and

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594-536: The whole region again, because today La Défense concentrates a major part of those jobs; and traffic is already saturated in the district, while it would need huge investments to extend transport infrastructures. It launched high-profile international competitions and/or construction approval of several key 300-to-320-metre (980 to 1,050 ft) tall sustainable development-style skyscrapers such as Tour Signal , Tour Phare , Hermitage Plaza , and Tour Generali . During said December 2005 Press Conference, EPAD released to

621-488: Was accredited as a European School in 2020. Besides the representative architecture, the area also houses an open-air museum with 70 statues and pieces of modern art , including the following works: 48°53′30″N 2°14′27″E  /  48.89167°N 2.24083°E  / 48.89167; 2.24083 Paris La D%C3%A9fense Arena Paris La Défense Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Nanterre ,

648-528: Was built and first used in 1958. These "first generation" skyscrapers were all very similar in appearance, limited to a height of 100 metres (330 ft). In 1966, the Nobel Tower was the first office skyscraper built in the area. In 1970, the RER line A railway was opened from La Défense to Étoile . In 1974, a contract for a Défense- Cergy high-speed hovercraft train was signed and soon abandoned. In

675-619: Was erected in 1883 to commemorate the soldiers who had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War . In September 1958, the Public Establishment for Installation of La Défense  [ fr ] (EPAD) buildings (of which the Esso Tower was the first) were constructed and began to slowly replace the city's factories, shanties, and even a few farms. The Centre of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT)

702-654: Was inaugurated in 2017. The district is located at the westernmost extremity of the 10-kilometre-long (6.2 mi) Axe historique ("historical axis") of Paris , which starts at the Louvre in Central Paris and continues along the Champs-Élysées , well beyond the Arc de Triomphe along the Avenue de la Grande Armée before culminating at La Défense. The district is centred in an orbital motorway straddling

729-443: Was ultimately built with a fixed roof instead. The Rolling Stones were the first band ever to perform a concert at the venue, closing their Europe-only No Filter Tour , with three shows, on 19, 22, and 25 October 2017. The arena's first rugby union match, took place on 25 November 2017 between France and Japan . On 11 March 2018, the French professional basketball clubs Nanterre 92 and ASVEL Basket , played each other in

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