Rebel architect gets nod for highest Paris skyscraper

US architect Thom Mayne — a rebel known for his love of risk-taking — has been chosen to build Paris’s tallest-ever skyscraper, rivalled in height only by the Eiffel Tower.

Mayne’s Los Angeles-based company Morphosis beat a cast of nine global design stars including Britain’s Norman Foster for the commercial project to be built on Paris’s western rim, in the La Defence business district.

“Le Phare” (The Lighthouse), Mayne’s 300-metre building — a twin structure combining a rectangular base with a soaring, organic-shaped tower — was selected by an international jury following a contest organised by the French property group Unibail.