Therefore, she should “gather rose-buds” or the things in life she needs, before time takes over. She will be more appreciated while she is young and beautiful. The poem begins with the speaker stating that a woman should do everything she can while she is young to take advantage of the love others want to give her. A lower-ground car park provides 40 spaces, and ultimately the tower will accommodate 2,650 office workers.‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’ by Robert Herrick describes a speaker’s beliefs about the impact of time on a woman’s life and the value of beauty. These lower floors and the winter garden are made of low-iron glass with structural glass mullions. Where the building meets the Boulevard Circulaire there is 310m² of retail space, which is linked to the lobby level by a grand stair. On the 35th floor are conference and dining facilities that are wrapped by a garden framing the views of Paris. On the level of the dalle is an 18m-high sky-lighted winter garden intended to offer respite from the weather year-round. Inside, the building is home to 45,466m² of office space that stretches from the first to the 13th floor. Stern intended for the angular exterior to accentuate the building’s metaphoric roles as both the ‘divine’ doorway to the district and a symbol of forward-thinking architecture in Paris. Janus was the God of doors, openings and new beginnings. As the connecting point between the raised esplanade – the dalle that continues the axis of the Champs-Elysées through the district – and Courbevoie to the north, the building took on a Janus-like standing in the area.
Its faceted façade not only makes for an eye-catching talking point but also provides environmental benefits to the building. Project architect Robert AM Stern visualised an adventurous 35-floor, 166m-high skyscraper, poised with the confidence of an exclamation mark among the other buildings. In the brief given by Aviva, architects were asked to design a building that embodied the aspirations – both aesthetic and environmental – of the name ‘Carpe Diem’. Other architects with buildings standing, under construction or in the pipeline at La Défense included Jean-Paul Viguier, Arte Charpentier, Christian de Portzamparc, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Arquitectonica, Morphosis, and Valode & Pistre Architectes. The building programme was part of the overall development plan issued by the EPAD, which breathe new life into the area’s architecture and atmosphere. The judging panel for the competition included Aviva France chairman Bruno Rostain, the company’s real-estate director Joëlle Chauvin and representatives from Hines France and the La Défense Management and Development Office (EPAD).
Other competing architects included Jacques Ferrier Architecte from Paris and Foster + Partners from London. New York-based architects Robert AM Stern won the competition for the design in January 2008, which called for a building that ‘seized the day’ in both its look and functioning. The €340m tower is the headquarters for the world’s fifth largest insurance group, Aviva, which specialises in life insurance and pensions. Tour Carpe Diem is an environmentally responsible and visually daring office tower in La Défense, the business district of Paris.
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