CNIT Dome and La Défense Skyline, Paris

4 October 2017 · Paris

The CNIT dome's scalloped concrete arch pulls the eye across the frame before the glass towers of La Défense take over behind it. Areva Tower anchors the right side of the skyline, dark and flat against a blue sky scattered with thin cloud. It is a composition that works because the arch and the towers speak opposite structural languages — one curved and shell-like, the other rectilinear and corporate — and the frame holds both at once.