RPBW - Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has revealed a visionary proposal to transform Montparnasse’s 1970s commercial centre and the CIT Tower into a lively, pedestrian-focused urban district. Commissioned by the site’s co-owners, the plan reimagines the ensemble as a permeable, human-scale environment that reconnects streets, opens public spaces, and integrates culture, housing, sport, and landscape into everyday city life.
Reconnecting Montparnasse to the City
Constructed between 1969 and 1973 on the former Montparnasse train station site, the Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse (EITMM) long reflected the inward-looking slab urbanism of its era. RPBW’s proposal seeks to reverse this by reopening the block, introducing new pedestrian routes that link Rue de Rennes, Montparnasse station, and surrounding streets, and creating seamless visual and physical connections between the public realm and interior spaces.
Renzo Piano describes the proposal as “a highly thoughtful project, with a spark of audacity,” while architect Albert Giralt adds: “It is a surgical project that seeks to demolish as little as possible while radically transforming a hostile, inward-looking commercial centre into a vibrant Parisian urban hub.”
Courtesy © RPBW
A Central Public Piazza
At the heart of the project is a generous 40-by-40-metre piazza, larger than Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine in the Marais. Shaded by a dense canopy of trees and animated by cafés, terraces, and cultural programming, the square is designed as a daily gathering place for locals and visitors alike. A 1,500 m² cultural facility opens onto the piazza, offering spaces for contemporary arts and music, with panoramic elevators and a series of belvederes connecting the venue vertically to the public realm.
Above, rooftop sports facilities extend the public experience into the sky. Six multi-sport courts offer spectacular views across Paris, complementing the nearby Armand Massard sports centre with swimming pools and fencing halls, creating a unique concentration of recreational infrastructure in the heart of the city.
Courtesy © RPBW
Sustainability and Human-Scale Design
The redesign reduces retail surfaces by 28%, concentrating on destination-focused uses and strengthening pedestrian flows. Building heights and densities are carefully aligned with the surrounding urban fabric, while human-scale volumes and open spaces encourage social interaction and daily use. Over one third of the ensemble will be dedicated to housing, culture, and sport, including 5,600 m² of student residences, 30% of which will be social housing.
Sustainability is a guiding principle. The existing structural grid is largely retained, minimising demolition and embodied carbon, while new lightweight timber volumes introduce contemporary programs with minimal intervention. By “building with what already exists,” the project combines pragmatism with forward-looking design, turning a mid-century commercial block into a lively urban hub.
A Vision for the Future
Although still in the planning phase, the project has received multipartisan support from the Paris Council. A protocol agreement signed in January 2026 marked a key milestone in the shared commitment to revitalising this strategic Left Bank site.
Courtesy © RPBW
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Cover image: Courtesy © RPBW
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