Jean Nouvel feels like his MoMA Tower has been put under the guillotine.  The starchitect behind the lopped-off Midtown Manhattan proposal told CBS News this weekend that “It’s very French to cut the head, eh?”  His 75-story tower would have rivaled the Empire State Building for supremacy over the New York skyline, standing 1,250 feet tall, but met significant opposition from neighbors worried the tower would drown their street in shadow.

City Planning Commission officials voted earlier this year to allow a shortened version of the tower – chopping off 200 feet of the Pritzker Prize winner’s design.  Nouvel’s vision has been sent back to the drawing boards, but he says it’s “not in his character” to feel discouraged.  Be sure to check out AN‘s cameo appearance at the end of the interview.