If you have ever seen Wim Wenders' rambling and partially futuristic 1991 film "Until the End of the World" (and I often think I may have been the only one who has actually seen it), you probably remember a brief scene early in the movie where William Hurt is driving in Paris and in the background is a magnificent cylindrical, endless tower. Jean Nouvel's Tour Sans Fin was designed to be built near the Grand Arch at La Defense in Paris. It was never built. Jean Nouvel has actually had many of his designs realized- including Paris' Arab Institute and Cartier Foundation, but the magnificent Endless Tower can only be seen now by renting an obscure movie and waiting for just a few priceless seconds and imagining what could have been.

Institut du Monde Arabe
(1987) Paris, France

The panels on the exterior walls are mechanical and beautiful, but not necessarily loved by those inside the building. People in the library traditionally do not want as much direct (filtered) light as the panels allowed, and people in the offices lived to complain about them. There were/are also all sorts of mechanical issues, misbehaving panels, broken panels, you know the drill. Still that's what you get for hiring an great architect to create a great building, everything worth it comes with a price.

Click here to go to the Arab Institute's site, admission is included to the building (as well as the Pompidou and Villa Savoye) with those always possible Paris museum passes

Monolith
(2002) Murten, Switzerland

Part of expo.02, the big metal box out on the lake that summer was the most popular icon of the expo, if you didn't count the Diller + Scofidio fake cloud two train rides away. The experience of the Monolith involved a queue, a short boat ride, an exhibit and another queue.

Fondation Cartier
(2002) Paris, France

It's almost like its not there at all. Layers of glass, sometimes permeated by trees, protecting other layers of glass. Reflections, transparency, everything good about glass although I'm sure it's a bitch to clean. Inside are two levels of galleries with rotating exhibits as well as reflective views outside to other layers of glass. Designed by Jean Nouvel and located in a fine neighborhood near the Raspail Metro stop, it is one building that certainly does not photograph well at all.

Click here to go to the Fondation Cartier site, the galleries would be worth the Metro trip even if they wasn't in a Jean Nouvel building

Slideshow | L'Institut du Monde Arabe

See more of the Arab Institute (and fifteen more places) at the ArBITAT Places page... (go to places.ArBITAT.com)

ArBITAT WTC Archive

Follow the progress (or lack thereof) of Jean Nouvel's downtown World Trade Center tower, along with Slideshows, Commentaries and Images of the past, present and future of the World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan at the ArBITAT WTC Archive... (go to archive at the ArBITAT Views Page)

ArBITAT FutureWatch

Jean Nouvel is certainly busy, getting comissions around the world, from Minneapolis to Barcelona to (as expected) France. Follow their progress at ArBITAT FutureWatch... (go to ArBITAT FutureWatch)