Paris' Montparnasse Tower could be redesigned by one of these seven renowned architects

Seven top-notch multi-disciplinary teams will have a chance to compete for the €300 million Montparnasse Tower redesign. The current (and strongly detested) tower in Paris belongs to Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse, a prominent European private commercial real-estate co-ownership. EITMM launched the competition last June to find the architect that will restore and recreate the tower's identity.

The teams were selected out of 700 hopeful participants from around the globe. Following a board meeting on October 14, Montparnasse Tower representatives finally pre-selected seven architects to move on to stage two.

Scroll down to find out who they are.

• ARCHITECTURE STUDIO – France
• DOMINIQUE PERRAULT ARCHITECTURE – France
• MAD ARCHITECTS – China (in partnership with DGLA)
• nAOM (Franklin Azzi Architecture / Chartier Dalix / Hardel-Lebihan Architectes) – France
• OMA – The Netherlands
• PLP ARCHITECTURE – UK
• STUDIO GANG – US

The renovation of the Montparnasse Tower is the first major step toward EITMM's larger project, Demain Montparnasse, which “aims to restore the surrounding property’s role as a modern and accessible urban centre in the heart of Paris’s left bank”.

In the coming months, the stage-two teams will work on their design proposals, which will they will submit next March. Two finalists will then advance to the third and final stage before a winner is expected to be chosen in July 2017. Construction of the new tower is currently scheduled to start in 2019 with completion in 2023.