La Défense Esplanade, Paris — Glass Towers and Open Sky

29 May 2022 · Paris

The esplanade at La Défense stretches toward the Paris skyline in a grid of pale paving slabs, each line pulling the eye toward the glass towers clustered at the far end. Coeur Défense anchors the left; a cylindrical tower holds the centre. People cross the vast pedestrian plaza in ones and twos, small against the scale of the business district around them. The geometry does the work — the receding grid and the vertical mass of the skyscrapers hold the frame in tension, both monumental and entirely ordinary on a cloudy afternoon.