The challenge of a high-rise building
Juliette Thémiot, Project Leader at Hines France and delegated project manager, is a specialist in high‑rise buildings. For five years, she followed the construction of the Duo Towers.
What fascinates you about high-rise buildings?
I’ve always been attracted to high-rise buildings because they’re complex structures calling for real teamwork. I joined Hines France to work on the Duo Towers, where construction work began in March 2017. There were four of us working full time on the operation, alongside 15 people responsible for project management, 10 architects, and 120 managerial staff at Bateg, a VINCI subsidiary. It was like a small company in its own right!
This type of project requires a really tight-knit team and a high level of coordination. You have to learn to work together, which is a highly motivating collective challenge because the different players in our profession are all very involved and feel a real sense of pride in what they’re doing.
Do you have a memorable anecdote you’d like to share with us?
One of the most memorable moments for me was the start of the construction work. For a little over a year, the work wasn’t visible because nine levels of basements had to be dug out for the foundations. That’s equivalent to a depth of 40 meters and creates a host of technical constraints. One day, during a monthly update at Hines, I proudly announced to the team committee: “That’s it, we’ve hit bottom!” This was followed by an embarrassed silence that forced me to give further explanations: we had indeed hit the bottom of the excavation and from that moment on we could finally start building the towers upwards. From then on, we started building the ‘core’ of the tower, before building up the floor levels as we went along.
Parisians driving on the ring road and in the 13th arrondissement were finally able to see a spectacular structure slowly emerge from the ground, forming the backbone of the project as a whole.
What do you wish to tell Groupe BPCE employees?
I wish them a warm welcome! We hope you’ll enjoy living and working in these towers as much as we enjoyed building them!
Project Leader at Hines France and delegated project manager
