Tour Part-Dieu is an office skyscraper in the Part-Dieu business district of Lyon, France. Designed by the American firm Araldo Cossutta and built between 1972 and 1977, it reaches a height of 165 metres. At its delivery in 1977, it was the tallest French skyscraper outside Île-de-France and the third tallest building in France. It currently occupies the fourth position in the national height ranking.

The tower consists of a 138-metre-high cylinder with 42 floors, topped by a 27-metre transparent pyramid. Its hollow core allows natural light to pass through the pyramid. According to its architect, the summit is at roughly the same height as the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. The building’s shape led Lyon inhabitants to nickname it “the pencil.”

The construction of the tower was decided by several financial groups, including Crédit Lyonnais. The building was inaugurated in 1977 and renamed Tour Part-Dieu in November 2010, when its logo also incorporated the nickname “crayon.”

◎ Nearby Objects

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  Auditorium Maurice-Ravel 90 m away
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  Westfield La Part-Dieu 200 m away
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  Rue Garibaldi 200 m away
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  Les casernes de la Part-Dieu 200 m away
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  Tour Oxygène 250 m away

Tour Part-Dieu: Design and History

Tour Part-Dieu is an office skyscraper in the Part-Dieu business district of Lyon, France. It was designed by the American firm Araldo Cossutta and built between 1972 and 1977. The tower measures 165 meters in height and, at its delivery in 1977, it was the tallest French skyscraper outside Ile-de-France and the third tallest building in France. It now occupies the fourth position in the French building height ranking.

The building consists of a 138-meter-high cylinder with 42 floors, topped by a transparent pyramid measuring 27 meters. According to its architect, the summit is roughly at the same height as the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere. The hollow core of the tower allows natural light to pass through the pyramid. Its form led inhabitants of Lyon to nickname it

Construction and Purpose

Tour Part-Dieu was constructed by Historique as an office tower for the Part-Dieu business district. Its purpose was both symbolic and urban: it was intended to signal the presence of the business district and to materialize the virtual composition axis extended east to the Gratte-Ciel de Villeurbanne. The tower was inaugurated in 1977.

Technical Layout and Access

Tour Part-Dieu includes office space within a total built surface area described in the technical details. Access is organized through separate entrances: the main entrance is located on the Part-Dieu platform, while the hotel entrance is on rue Servient. The building also has a basement parking lot with 220 spaces.

The vertical circulation system comprises 19 elevators in total. For the offices, there are 10 elevators serving the ground floor and upper floors, including 2 high-speed elevators that connect directly from the ground floor to the upper floors at 4 m/s. The hotel is served by 2 elevators from the lower floors to the upper floors, as well as 4 service elevators that also reach the ground floor and basement levels -1 and -2. In addition, there is 1 freight elevator for the offices.

Tour Part-Dieu and Its Mixed-Use Occupation

Tour Part-Dieu is a mixed-use tower in the Lyon metropolis and is the second tallest building there, surpassed only by the Incity tower at 200 meters. Its upper levels are occupied by a hotel operated by Radisson, formerly Le Meridien, which takes up the top seven floors. Offices are also located on other floors of the building. The hotel level includes the panoramic Celest bar-restaurant, which is reached by two high-speed direct elevators separate from those serving the office floors.

The tower is hollowed out over its last ten floors, with hotel rooms arranged around a central shaft. This shaft diffuses light from the transparent pyramid above, giving the upper part of the building a distinctive internal structure. Tour Part-Dieu is also associated with the Oxygene tower, inaugurated in 2010 and paired with it. When constructed, Oxygene was the second tallest tower in Lyon at 115 meters and includes the Cours Oxygene commercial center, dedicated mainly to home equipment, which is connected to the Part-Dieu shopping center opened in 1975. In 2012, Tour Part-Dieu presented a colored roof illumination during the Fete des Lumieres.

Tour Part-Dieu in Popular Culture

The Tour Part-Dieu is a representative monument of the city and appears frequently in local popular culture. It is featured on the front of city postcards, and it also appears in humorous form in local newspapers and magazines, as well as in the Petit Paume. The tower is mentioned in the song Lyon-Presqu'ile on the album La Superbe by Benjamin Biolay, where it is referred to as the tour en stylo bille.

Tour Part-Dieu in Lyon

Tour Part-Dieu is a skyscraper in Lyon, located in the La Part-Dieu district. Built in 1977, the building stands between 150 and 199 meters tall. A public webcam has been installed at the top of the tower, offering a panoramic view of the city. This feature gives the skyscraper a public-facing role beyond its physical presence in the urban skyline.