Odeon Tower

The Odeon Tower (French: Tour Odéon) is a double-skyscraper currently being built in the Principality of Monaco. It is the first high-rise in the city-state to be built since the 1980s (high constructions had been abandoned due to architectural concerns, sea polders had been preferred). At 170 meters high, Tour Odeon will be the second tallest building on Europe's Mediterranean coast, after Gran Hotel Bali (186m) in Benidorm, Spain. Had Tour Odeon been built in neighboring France, it would be among that country's 10 highest buildings. It will be the 199th tallest building in the world - by floor count - upon its finish date.

This project from Claudio Marzocco's Marzocco Group is an important renewal of economic development for the second-smallest country in the world. Its construction was launched in the middle of the economic crisis, in 2009.

Background

At the end of the 1980s, Prince Rainier III decided to stop building high rises in Monaco, following the construction of some controversial architectural choices. In 2008 his son, Prince Albert II, decided to abandon a polder project (judged as too expensive and too dangerous for surrounding sealife) and build a new high-rise and reformed polder project instead. Both the complex's design and construction was/is subject to validation by the Urbanism Department of the Principality, and the Prince of Monaco himself.