engineering

Tour First

Tour First is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tour First rather than just read about it. In short: Tour First (previously known as Tour UAP between 1974 and 1998, and as Tour Axa between 1998 and 2007) is an office skyscraper in the La Défense business district of the metropolitan area of Paris. Built in 1974, the tower stands at 231 m (758 ft) tall with 52 floors and is the current second tallest building in France.

Key takeaways

Tour First belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tour First to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tour First from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tour First (previously known as Tour UAP between 1974 and 1998, and as Tour Axa between 1998 and 2007) is an office skyscraper in the La Défense business district of the metropolitan area of Paris. Built in 1974, the tower stands at 231 m (758 ft) tall with 52 floors and is the current second tallest building in France.

History The tower was built in 1974 by Bouygues for the Union des assurances de Paris (UAP) insurance company. The building was 159 m (522 ft) at that time. Its ground shape was in the form of a three-pointed star whose branches were separated each by a 120° angle. This particular shape was chosen to symbolize the merger of the three French insurance companies that were at the origin of UAP. The tower was renamed Tour Axa when UAP was bought by the Axa insurance company in 1996. Large-scale renovation of the tower began in 2007 and was completed in 2011. The exterior appearance of the building was completely changed, with extra height added to the tower. The renovated tower, now known as Tour First, is 225 m (738 ft) at roof height, and 231 m (758 ft) including its spire, with a total floor space of 86,707 m2 (933,310 sq ft). It is currently the tallest skyscraper in France, only surpassed in height by the Eiffel Tower. Another Axa tower exists in New York City, US, which is 228.6 m (751 ft) tall; Tour AXA in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was completed in 1974 and is 104 m (341 ft).

Usage The audit and consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) installed 3,400 people in the tower at the end of 2011, which occupies a total of 37,000 m2 (400,000 sq ft) spread over 36 floors. The credit insurance company Euler Hermes installed a thousand people on 21,000 m2 (230,000 sq ft) at the end of April 2012, occupying the 32nd to 45th floors as well as two floors at the podium of the tower, that is to say at its foot. In April 2017, the 240 employees of the head office of Laboratoires Expanscience (Mustela, Piasclédine 300, etc.) have moved into the 8th and 9th floors, covering almost 4,000 m2 (43,000 sq ft). The tower indicates the next day's weather by lighting up in different colors. The Kwerk coworking space has been a tenant over two floors of the building since June 2017. It offers 390 spaces divided into open and closed offices, and contains a giant trompe-l'oeil library 11 meters high on the 11th floor. These spaces were entirely designed by the designer and co-founder of Kwerk Albert Angel.

Gallery

See also La Défense List of tallest buildings and structures in the Paris region List of tallest buildings in France

References

External links

Tour First (Insecula) Tour First at CTBUH Tour First at SkyscraperPage Tour First at Structurae

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tour First

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tour First claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tour First before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tour First ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tour First

In research: Tour First appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tour First in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tour First is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 establishments in France, 20th-century architecture in France, 21st-century architecture in France, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tour First outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tour First in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tour First means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tour First out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tour First in simple terms?

Why does Tour First matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tour First?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tour First.