Tour Total


Tour Total is an office skyscraper located in La Défense, Courbevoie, the high-rise business district west of and adjacent to the city of Paris, France, designed in the Modern architectural style. The building now serves as headquarters for Total S.A., one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.
Completed and opened in 1985, it is the third-tallest skyscraper in La Défense and the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the Paris area, after the Tour First and the Tour Montparnasse. Tour Total is 190 m tall; a three-metre long antenna is located on its roof, which is 187 m above the ground. The site on which the Tour Total was built was initially reserved for a skyscraper which would have been a twin tower to Tour Areva, but the oil shock of 1974 forced the investors to cancel their project.
Tour Total is one of La Défense's third generation of skyscrapers. Architects took into account the flaws in towers of previous generations. For instance, the Tour Total is much more efficient in terms of energy consumption than previous La Défense skyscrapers.
Tour Total actually consists of five bodies of different heights super-imposed on each other. The tallest of those bodies has 48 floors, while the next two have 44 and 37 floors respectively.