WHY THE AIR AND LIGHT ARE SO MUCH BETTER IN PARIS.

This reports on the building codes in France that make buildings in Paris better. When the world-renowned architect Jean-Paul Viguier recently won a contract to build a 30-floor Sofitel Hotel in Chicago and a 40-floor office building at La Défense in Paris, the contrast between tough French standards and lax U.S. ones shocked him. French regulations required three times as much ventilation for his Paris tower and twice as much sound-proofing as in Chicago--all the while slashing energy consumption to half U.S. levels. By law, each workerstation in France needed access to natural light--a scarcity in most U.S. offices. As people in the U.S. face an epidemic of sick buildings, they could learn a lot by looking across the ocean. European building regulations begin by stressing the need for fresh air.