In front of you rises a pair of tall towers, and before crossing the street, walk a few steps forward if you want a better view of the whole complex: this is the Hanoi Towers, a set of twin towers in the heart of the French Quarter. They are called twin towers because they were designed as a single, coherent architectural project, even though they are not the same height. The complex is made up of two towers linked by a shared podium: a 14-storey office tower and a 27-storey residential and hotel tower, the Somerset Grand Hanoi, which offers serviced apartments. Construction began in June 1995 and was completed in just five months, and at the time it marked a major shift in the city’s skyline. For ten years, it was the tallest building in Hanoi. But the site also carries a darker history, as it was built on the site of the former Hỏa Lò Prison, two thirds of which were demolished to make way for this project, while the remaining section was preserved as a museum. Even today, with few tall buildings allowed in the historic center, these towers still dominate Hoàn Kiem District, one of the clearest signs of Hanoi’s business boom and the wave of urban change at the end of the twentieth century.