When you think of Paris, you don’t think of skyscrapers. If you ride the escalator to the top of Centre Georges Pompidou, the city spreads out around you, a charming jumble of roofs on buildings mostly five or six stories high, as prescribed by Baron Haussmann in the 19th century. Except for the Eiffel Tower, Parisians have hated protrusions in their skyline.

But that is changing. Height limits set in 1977—after the despised 689-foot Tour Montparnasse was built—were loosened in 2010, to allow for higher-density housing in parts of the city. And now, visible from atop the Pompidou, is the slender profile of a new glass tower far in the distance to the north.