Cœur Défense is an office skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

 in La Défense

La Défense

La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...

, the high-rise business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 west of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. With 350,000 m² (3.77 million sq. ft), it is the building with the most floor space in Europe along with the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest.

Coeur Défense was built in 2001, replacing the former Esso Tower

Esso Tower

The Esso Tower was one of the first buildings built in La Défense in the 1960s. It was demolished in 1993 to be replaced by the Cœur Défense tower.-A pioneer of La Défense:...

, the first building of the old generation to be destroyed in La Défense. Cœur Défense is a large complex made of two main bodies connected to one another by a smaller body and seating on a wide basis made of several smaller bodies. The edges of all bodies are rounded. The cladding is white, with large windows. An electronic system monitors white blinds which can be drawn or opened all together at the same time.

The two main bodies are 161 m (528 ft) tall each. Both of them are relatively thin as their width is only 24 m (79 ft), and they are out of line with each other, so that sunlight can reach all parts of the building.
Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...

' €2.1bn top-of-the-market purchase of Coeur Défense, could become Europe's largest distressed property sale. Due to falling property values, and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers

Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S...

, the transaction is under stress. The Borrower who owns the building has placed itself under sauveguarde

See also

• Skyscraper
  Skyscraper
  A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
  
  
• La Défense
  La Défense
  La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...
  
  
• List of tallest structures in Paris
• largest buildings