Nouvel compares MoMa tower height chop to guillotine, says it was “very French”

“It’s very French to cut the head, eh?” French starchitect Jean Nouvel said of his planned MoMa tower, now 200 feet shorter after community opposition forced a height chop. “A guillotine.” In an interview with CBS News over the weekend, Nouvel explained that he had “tried to play with the idea of a needle” in designing the original, 75-story version. He’s currently working on a redesign. “My buildings are more famous than me,” he said.