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Mar

2012

The Struggle for a Bigger Paris | stephanekirkland.com

Fascinating history and analysis of the politics that have made Paris the political entity it is today. Conclusion:
QUOTE
We know from history that any institutional change in the governance of cities is a long and difficult process. Today, the issue is clear, the potential solutions are limited, and the months following the presidential election are a rare political window of opportunity. It will be fascinating to see if Greater Paris is able to organize itself to meet its challenges, if it will give itself a government appropriate to the ambition it needs to have for the future, or if it will continue to wallow in the gridlock of individual interests being put before those of the metropolis.
UNQUOTE

stephanekirkland.com/...he-struggle-for-a-bigger-paris

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paris stephane_kirkland amalgamation politics cities

Sep

2009

AIArchitect This Week | Pushing the Limits: Contemporary Parisian Architecture in Historic Contexts

Hillis's article looks at how historical and contemporary architecture is "blended" in a "historically centric city such as Paris." Focus on Les Halles; new Ministry of Culture building; Le Fouquet Hotel on Avenue George V; etc.

info.aia.org/...0731d_paris.cfm

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architecture heritage paris wendy_hillis

Oct

2008

Inhabitat » Herzog and de Meuron’s Stunning Triangular Skyscraper

Photos & text about the planned 200 m. tall triangular skyscraper (called Le Projet Triangle) by Herzon and de Meuron, for the Porte de Versailles in Paris. Allegedly so slim that it will hardly cast a shadow, it will also incorporate solar and wind power components.

www.inhabitat.com/...iangle-by-herzog-and-de-meuron

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herzog_demeuron paris architecture starchitecture skyscrapers inhabitat

Paris’ new pyramid will be the first high-rise to be approved for construction is the city’s center since 1977, thanks to the recent lifting of a 31-year-old ban established by the previous Mayor of paris, Jacques Chirac.
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- Their latest project is expected to restore flow to it’s environs by reconnecting the rue de Vaugirard and avenue Ernest Renan at the site of the building.
- This first of many high-rise buildings currently being planned for Paris, Projet Triangle will incorporate shops and restaurants at the ground level in addition to offices, a conference center and a 400 room hotel. Upon completion in 2014, the project will be the third tallest structure in the inner city after the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse. The pyramid’s construction may be a point of contention for many Parisians, as polls have found that 62% do not favor high rises within the city,

Jul

2008

Looming Debate, by Veronique Vienne (Metropolis Magazine)

Interesting article (with some inaccuracies, too), focused chiefly on Bertrand Delanoe, the "Situationist"-inspired left-leaning, assassination attempt survivor and openly gay mayor of Paris, who gets blind-sided by Nikolas Sarkozy, the pro-business president of France, who wants Paris to be a bit more get-go-ish. Delanoe is on the side of the human-scale advocates who want to preserve its "charms," whereas Sarkozy doesn't mind a tall building or two. The article is interesting because it's one of the clearest outlines I've seen so far on making political linkages between certain attitudes toward modernization and height in Paris, vs preservation (and rejuvenation) of what that city's status quo as well as historical "essence" (at least mid-19th century onward) is.

www.metropolismag.com/...story.php

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paris metropolis_magazine high_rise urbanism urbanplanning bertrand_delanoe

One of Delanoë’s priorities has been to blur the line separating affluent Parisians from their often less privileged neighbors. In the last decades, Paris has steadily lost its working-class residents, who migrate to poorer bedroom communities beyond the city limits—a trend Delanoë wants to stop.
- Yule Heibel on 2008-07-09
  Well, good luck. You can "want" to stop something like that, but that won't make the inner Paris more affordable or make land values drop.
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Whether it will work remains to be seen, but this solution is a typical Delanoë move. The former head of a PR agency, the mayor likes projects that “speak”—those that tell a good story and make his political intentions clear.
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- “He is clever, even mischievous. In this town, it’s the only way to be innovative while respecting the fetters of tradition.”
- promote small punctual interventions that improve the quality of life of Parisians. He is less supportive of projects that flaunt the vitality of corporations and financial institutions eager to pitch towering office buildings inside Paris
- For tall structures to be erected, Delanoë would have to change existing regulations that cap the height of buildings at 82 feet in the center of Paris
- Delanoë would rather spend taxpayers’ money improving the urban experience than sweetening deals to attract big investment.
  - Yule Heibel on 2008-07-09
    again, it's a question of affordability, non? If you can afford to do that as a city, great. if you're not Paris, maybe you can't afford it, though...
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- He knows that living well is the most effective business incentive and the reason everyone wants to come to Paris.
  - Yule Heibel on 2008-07-09
    Isn't that sort of like making a place into a resort community for the well-off? Isn't that what's happening (or in danger of happening) with Vancouver, and even with Victoria?
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- The capital can no longer afford to be a museum of its glorious past. It needs to jump over the beltway, reach out to the suburbs, and become the center of the metropolis that encircles it.
- But under the pretext of helping him achieve this goal, Delanoë’s political opponents are launching a campaign, spearheaded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to create a new administrative chain of command to supervise the economic development of a new urban entity that would incorporate the capital and its suburbs, an area whose outer boundaries are still to be determined but that has already been named Grand Paris. In the wrong hands, this proposal might be used to undermine Delanoë’s authority. And, indeed, recently reelected by a landslide vote that reaffirmed the left-leaning preferences of the historically defiant Parisians, the mayor has many enemies in the pro-business Sarkozy government.
  - Yule Heibel on 2008-07-09
    - sounds familiar...
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- The question of Paris and its suburbs is linked to that of building heights because it is at the frontier between these two worlds that city planners propose to challenge the traditional size limits and build skyscrapers.
- Tall buildings are anathema here for many reasons. The City of Light is built atop a city of shadows. Paris is laid over a subterranean limestone quarry, its huge system of ancient tunnels weakening the ground. Its low-rise skyline is the product of geological circumstances. But there is another reality—a political one—that has shaped the way the city looks: Parisians don’t like authority. They’re an unruly bunch, known to tear down or burn symbols of oppression. In fact, the architectural form that is most typically Parisian is not the mansard roofline or the Haussmann facade but the barricade. A low structure, usually made of a pile of cobblestones and pieces of trash from construction sites, it has been the type of edifice local residents choose most often to express their political views. Tall buildings in Paris? You must be kidding! To Parisians it would be an open invitation to dissent.
  
  
  But Lion, like so many French architects, would like to see Paris compete in terms of contemporary architecture with cities like Barcelona, Berlin, and London. He says he enjoys working with clients in cities that are much more dynamic, much more creative—and much more polluted—than Paris, adding, “Yet at the same time, I can’t wait to fly back home where I can walk wherever I want and breathe freely. It’s not just the nice streets and the clean air I crave; it’s the democracy.” As annoying as it is, a convoluted “democratic” process safeguards the public good in Paris, he says. Indeed, in an unprecedented move, Delanoë has imposed on private developers the same time-consuming competition-and-jury review procedure foisted on public projects. “Things are so stagnant in this administratively driven city,” Lion says about this design-by-committee method, “but even I’m grateful for all the resistance. In Paris I feel there is hope for the human race. But they do get on my nerves!”
- “We want folks to apprehend Paris in another mode, in a less goal-oriented fashion,” Girard says, referring to the Situationist doctrine of the 1960s, a left-wing movement that advocated deliberate “disorientation” as a cure for conspicuous-consumption boredom.
- a generation influenced by the ideology of that time. His vision of Paris stems from a culture of dissent that condemned the constant hype required to sell consumer goods and products.
- “We’re here to do a city, not a collection of objects. A collection of objects never amounts to a city. Look at New York. There’s an array of amazing buildings there, but look at the poor quality of the public space! In contrast, compare this with the quality of the streetscape in Paris.”
- This antispectacular stance is a Delanoë trademark.
- The elegant translucent canopy that will spread its wings over Les Halles’s commercial center is indeed an unobtrusive structure, not the grand architectural gesture likely to appeal to Parisians who would like to see the city demonstrate the vitality of its financial community with truly dramatic buildings.
- Dominique Alba, director of the Paris Arsenal museum and the authority on contemporary architecture, bristles every time someone calls her hometown a museum city. “The architectural heritage of Paris is so rich, it swallows the most novel urban forms,” she explains. “There are plenty of exciting new buildings around, but they do not stick out.”
- Mercifully few and far between inside Paris, the tall apartment buildings and office towers that “stick out” were built in the 1970s in accordance with poorly understood Le Corbusier design principles.

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