The Louise Weiss was designed by the Paris-based team of architects Architecture-Studio. The architects were inspired by Roman amphitheatres. After the project was approved at an international contest in 1991, work, commissioned by the Société d'Aménagement et d'Équipement de la Région de Strasbourg on behalf of the Urban Community of Strasbourg, started in May 1995, with up to twelve tower cranes at the time on what was one of the biggest building sites of the decade in Europe. The inauguration of the building took place on 14 December 1999 by French President Jacques Chirac and Parliament President Nicole Fontaine. In internal EP documents, the building is referred to as "LOW". Tower The 60m high tower, intentionally left unfinished on one side, carries heavy symbolism, and is often said to have been oriented eastwards, i.e. towards eastern Europe, as by the time of the completion of the building no country from the former Soviet bloc had yet joined the EU. However, the open side of the tower actually faces west. In 2010 Glenn Beck suggested that the tower's design consciously mirrors the Vienna painting of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Agora On 14 January 2009, the European Parliament decided to bestow the name of Bronisław Geremek, a recently deceased member from Poland, on the courtyard inside the tower, calling it the "Bronisław Geremek Agora" (). This was officially inaugurated on 21 April 2009. Since 2004, the center of the Agora is marked with a glass sculpture "United Earth" by artist Tomasz Urbanowicz, which refers to the notion of openness and further expansion of the European Union. The glass artifact was approved by the Architecture-Studio and officially handed over as a gift from the City of Wrocław in the presence of the Josep Borrell, then President of the European Parliament. Hemicycle Members sit in a hemicycle according to their political groups arranged mainly from left to right, although with the non-attached members towards the back and right of the chamber. All desks are equipped with microphones, headphones for interpretation and electronic voting equipment. The leaders of the groups sit on the front benches at the centre, and in the very centre is a podium for guest speakers. The remaining segment of the circular chamber is primarily composed of the raised area where the President and staff sit. Behind them there is an EU flag attached to the wall