“His great work, his baptismal font was the Tower block” Jean de Mailly (1911-1975), an architect of high-rise buildings

Résumé En

The work of Jean de Mailly was marked by his interest in high-rise buildings. Visiting the United States on numerous occasions, the architect took the opportunity to study the urban planning and architecture there-and skyscrapers in particular-and combining Fine Arts culture and International Style, developed principles of ordered urban planning. Applying his doctrine to La Défense-which he imagined as a "Cartesian Manhattan"-and to the adjoining Front de Seine district of Puteaux, he designed the Nobel Tower block, the first building in the business district and the first French adaptation of what the Americans classify as office skyscrapers. Before his death in 1975, he built two other tower blocks in the district: Générale (now Ariane) and Blanche. The reception of his vertical projects was paradoxical. Although they brought him some celebrity during his lifetime, they were and remain forgotten by a whole swathe of historiographers and critics, since research on Jean de Mailly is still largely incomplete.