La Tour Montparnasse

I may be one of the few people (there must be more) who really like this building. Most people I encounter can't stand it. They say it doesn't fit, that it's out of scale, out of context, or that it's just plain ugly. Everyone is entitled their opinions. You can read what I wrote about it a couple years ago here.

Looking up the rue de Rennes toward the Montparnasse tower.

I think that we tend to give the context argument too much weight when considering or criticizing architecture. If objections over context and "fitting in" swayed historical builders, we might never have seen those magnificent domed churches and towering gothic cathedrals in the midst of medieval towns and their comparatively small buildings.

Paris certainly would not look like it does today; most of the city's grand stone buildings were erected in the nineteenth century and were, at the time, totally out of scale with the old stuff they eventually crowded out. But we couldn't think of Paris without them. In my opinion, counterpoint, renewal, and juxtaposition of architectural styles are fundamental elements of a successful, and beautiful, city. Ok, rant over.

When I lived in Paris in 1982, my third floor apartment in the 10th arrondissement had a view across town toward the Tour Montparnasse. I saw the tower in all kinds of light, and on certain days at sunrise the whole tower could look like a column of flame in the distance. It was very dramatic.

This picture was much to dark as a slide. Once again, Photoshop comes to the rescue, allowing me to lighten up the dark parts and tone down the bright parts, bringing a bit more balance to the shot.

This is part of a series of color slides that I took in Paris in the late 1980s. They are images that I didn't like much back then for one reason or another. I'm using Photoshop to try to give them a new life.