The Marseille building designed by Zaha Hadid that serves as a shipping-company headquarters is the CMA CGM Tower.
The 147-metre skyscraper stands in Euroméditerranée, Marseille’s central business district, and is the headquarters of CMA CGM, a major French container-shipping and logistics company. Hadid was selected to design it in 2004, and the tower became her first completed skyscraper.
Construction began in July 2006, and the building opened in September 2011. Its 33 floors accommodated about 2,200 employees whose offices had previously been spread across seven locations. The tower’s curved, tapering profile was designed to form a landmark near Marseille’s port while responding visually to other city landmarks, including Notre-Dame de la Garde.
La Marseillaise is another prominent Marseille tower, but it was designed by Jean Nouvel and completed later. Marseille Cathedral is a historic religious building, while the Eiffel Tower is in Paris and has no connection to this headquarters. The “CMA CGM” name refers to the shipping group’s historic predecessor companies.