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London Skyline
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Does Paris need new skyscrapers?
By John Laurenson
BBC News, Paris / http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22811518
Paris is set to follow London's race into the skies with 12
new skyscrapers.
A hundred and twenty years ago, the English designer William
Morris was asked why, in the French capital, he spent so much time at the
Eiffel Tower.
"It is," he explained, "the only place I
can't see it from."
Today he would probably choose the Tour Montparnasse that
rises like a 59-storey black gravestone where once was a neighbourhood of
political dreamers, artists and poets.
After they built this office block in 1973, the outcry was
so loud, they banned new buildings over seven storeys high. But the mayor,
Bertrand Delanoe, overturned that ban outside the city centre at least.
Paris city hall believes that skyscrapers - albeit of a
certain sort, in certain places - are just what Paris needs.
New city
Jerome Coumet, the young mayor of the city's 13th district,
is excited by the fact that some of the new skyscrapers - including one by
French architecture star Jean Nouvel - will be going up in his part of town.
A city is something that constantly renews itself”
Jerome Coumet
Mayor of 13th district of Paris
"A city is something that constantly renews
itself," says Mr Coumet in the office of his fine 19th-Century town hall.
"Paris attracts more tourists than any other city in
the world," he says. He does not think it a bad thing that much of Paris
is, as he puts it, is "a museum city".
But, says Mr Coumet, "I'm convinced that just as people
go to visit the new parts of London, people will come to see extraordinary new
architecture in Paris."
"French architects work all over the world," he
says. "They should also be able to express themselves in Paris."
Up in the north of Paris, a huge site of railway wasteland
has been cleared.
Here it is the Italian architect Renzo Piano who is about to
express himself, with a 160m-high (524ft) tower of four steel and glass boxes
placed on top of each other. It will house law courts. So the transparency is a
metaphor, Piano says.
'Not Dubai'
He was one of the architects who designed the Pompidou art
centre (the one with the escalator and the pipes on the outside). And the
Shard, the building that now dwarfs London's Tower Bridge.
Olivier de Monicault is president of the anti-skyscraper
pressure group SOS Paris. He has a name for this sort of building -
"rupture architecture" - and he hates it.
Modern architects, he says, make no attempt to fit in with
the architecture of the cities they build in. "Usually the architect makes
a project, then he tries to sell it in any place in the world," he says.
You don't embellish a city by building isolated tower blocks
that disfigure it”
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
Conservative politician
And, in any case, says Mr de Monicault, the last thing they
want is to fit in. They want their building to stand out. Literally and as much
as possible.
"[The architect] wants to become famous with his
building and so he thinks he makes something very strange, very different
[from] the place where he's building it," he argues.
However, Paris city hall stresses that the city is not about
to become Dubai.
The new height limit of 180m is quite a lot lower than the
Eiffel Tower.
"Paris is competing hard with other cities like London
as an international capital," says Paris district mayor Jerome Coumet.
"Paris too must be able to offer modern office
space."
But, ask city hall's opponents, what will be the demand for
office blocks even 10 years from now?
Back to ground?
"Office work is destined to disappear," says
philosopher Thierry Paquot, who recently published a book called La Folie des
Hauteurs (Height Madness).
The building of the Tour Montparnasse caused an outcry in
the 1970s
"We're already contracting out a lot of paperwork -
accounting for example - to workers in countries like India and Morocco and
every manager has his smartphone and does his own correspondence."
The world of work is undergoing a huge transformation, Paquot
says, adding: "I think we're moving towards a world where people will work
at home or in cafes and, when they have to meet, they'll do so not in a
skyscraper but somewhere really nice."
Neither, say their critics, do skyscrapers make good
economic sense.
"They cost a lot to build, to manage and to demolish
properly [in accordance with] the new regulations," according to Bertrand
Sauzay, former real estate director of telecom equipment maker Alcatel.
Mr Sauzay studied moving his company's headquarters into
three skyscrapers in the La Defense business district west of Paris. The
experience turned him into an anti-skyscraper campaigner.
In the end his company chose to renovate its old
headquarters in the city centre.
Architecture politics
There is every sign that city hall's decision to build high
in Paris will be one of the issues that will decide municipal elections in
March of next year.
Anne Hidalgo, the candidate the Socialist Party has selected
to succeed Mr Delanoe, was not available for an interview but has often argued
in favour of building much higher apartment blocks.
"We mustn't let ourselves be imprisoned by a 'heritage
vision' of the city," Ms Hidalgo told the news magazine L'Express.
"We are working towards a "genero-city" which
is to say a city that is open, convivial and in vibration."
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This design is for the Judiciary Tower in the north of the
city
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There are plans to build a Tour Duo
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Paris: A Tale of Two Possible Cities
Posted: 05/06/2013 4:56 pm /
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-z-shore/paris-a-tale-of-two-possi_b_3216042.html
It's the most popular city in the world -- 28 million
visitors a year, bringing in 84 billion euros to the city's coffers.
Yet this, apparently, is not good enough for Bertrand
Delanoë, the Socialist mayor of Paris. Nor for François Hollande, the Socialist
president of France.
Both men are promoting a plan that would change this
"City of Light" into a city of shadow -- a city ringed with possibly
a dozen skyscrapers, each one more bizarre than the last.
Originally called Le Grand Paris, and enthusiastically
endorsed by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, the idea was to construct huge
buildings outside the city limits, as defined by the Periphèrique (the outer
ring road). Thus, the city's 11-story limit on height would not be challenged.
The plan also envisaged new rail lines that would bring people in from the
suburbs to work in these buildings, which were conceived as strictly commercial,
not residential.
This grandiose project, running headlong into the economic
crisis, eventually got watered down. Today, the promoters are planning to build
three skyscrapers that will be built within the city limits. And they plan to
follow up these three with at least three more. SOS Paris, an organization
founded in 1973 to fight French president Georges Pompidou's plan to build
highways along the Seine, is the most outspoken opponent of the projects.
The plan, as they see it, is sheer folly -- urban hubris run
amok. First of all, Paris does not need more office buildings. The cluster of
office towers at La Défense, begun 40 years ago on the edge of the city, is
falling into disuse as many businesses are leaving. What Paris needs is
residential construction -- there is an appalling shortage of housing.
But that's not where the glamour lies. Many cities today,
from St. Petersburg to Dubai, think that by erecting weird new skyscrapers they
will enhance their global image. City planners and -- sadly to say --
architects, too, tend to denigrate the old and the traditional, and promote
instead what is brazenly nonconformist. It's fine to be culturally avant-garde
(buying art, composing music), but living in a city is serious business and
should not be the subject of wild experimentation. Someone has even suggested a
Hippocratic oath for urban planners: Thou shalt do no harm.
There is much harm to be done to Paris if these new building
projects go through. One, in the 15th arrondisement, is a 50-story glass
triangle designed by the reputable Swiss firm, Herzog & de Meuron. It
is ludicrous to think that they may have simply magnified I. M. Pei's glass
pyramid at the Louvre.... but the suspicion lingers. They claim that their Tour
Triangle would not cast a large shadow on the neighborhood, but it would
definitely require the demolition of half of Paris' main convention and
exhibition center at the Porte de Versailes.
The second project, planned for the 17th arrondissement, is
a boxy, three-tiered, 48-story courthouse, designed by the Italian architect,
Renzo Piano, who sees it as "a setting conducive to the exercise of
Justice." (Opponents call it a Tower of Babel.) It would replace the
venerable Palais de Justice on the Ile de la Cité. Understandably, the entire
legal community is opposed to this project, so there is a good chance that it
will be dropped.
The third project is already underway in the 13th
arrondissement, in the neighborhood behind the Gare d'Austerlitz and the
Bibliothèque Mitterrand. The site is euphemistically named Paris Rive Gauche.
It is indeed on the left bank of the Seine, but there the resemblance ends.
Developers are throwing up a haphazard assortment of residential and commercial
buildings that range from bland to ugly. And although they boast that there is
new office space for 50,000 people, there will be housing for only 15,000.
The rationale for these new projects, and the ones that may
follow, is seriously flawed. When it comes to architecture, bigger is not
better. It has been shown that skyscrapers are not more energy-efficient. Also,
they are extremely difficult to evacuate in case of a fire or other emergency.
And as they draw large numbers of people into a single high-rise building
(where an estimated 20% of their time is spent in elevators!), the place of
work becomes an artificial neighborhood, devoid of authentic urban activity.
Messrs. Hollande and Delanoë warn that Paris will become
"a museum city" if these skyscrapers are not built, and that foreign
visitors and foreign investment will dwindle. In fact, Paris will probably be
less desirable if its traditional attractions are (literally) overshadowed by
modern monstrosities.
The Cranky Urbanist: Paris Doesn’t Need the Triangle Tower
by Contributor /
http://francerevisited.com/2013/04/the-cranky-urbanist-paris-doesnt-need-the-triangle-tower-patrice-maire/
Responding to France Revisited’s call for an opinion article
from various opponents to Paris City Hall’s push to approve the construction of
a 180-meter (590-foot) high-rise known as the Triangle Tower, Patrice Maire,
president of the association Monts 14, stepped up to the plate with the
following text, translated here from the original French.
Will Paris Be Modernized or Disfigured?
by Patrice Maire
Ever since he was elected Mayor of Paris in 2001, Bertrand
Delanoë has established his popularity though high profile communications with
operations such as Vélib, the bike share system, Paris-Plages, the summertime
“beach” along the Seine, and a call for the construction of
skyscrapers—towers—along the edges of the city.
In 2004 he consulted Parisians on their view of the
capital’s urban development: 120,000 people responded and 63% declared
themselves to be opposed to the construction of towers. He dropped the idea,
particularly since he couldn’t alienate his Green Party allies who were also
opposed.
A modernity of thundering rupture with the past
In an opuscule published in 2009, Paris 21e siècle (21st
Century Paris), the mayor bellowed that “Paris should know how to impose its
modernity in order to maintain its rank.” Indeed, he’s given endless stabs at
the Paris landscape. On multiple occasions he has pushed up the height limits
in urban regulations: 15
meters (49
feet ) higher for architectural signs, unlimited increase
for wind turbines, etc. At the end of 2009, he chipped away at the regulated
height zone protecting the view of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysées
and on Rue de Rivoli by accepting the raising of the Samaritaine [Editor’s
note: Samaritaine is a former department store occupying choice real estate
between Notre-Dame and the Louvre and
now owned by LVMH and under renovation/reconversion]. Worse still, he obliges
developers with a modernity of thundering rupture, a 180° turn-around with
respect to the principles of integration in the urban landscape that have
always been written in the City Planning Code.
Delanoë and “old stones”
On November 21, 2011, at the Cévennes Gymnasium in the 15th
arrondissement, he said that “the image of Paris is not simply to come to see
old stones… we expect Paris to be a dynamic city of the 21st century, not of
the 18th or the 19th… we ask it to be a city of heritage and in international
competition, intellectually and creatively competitive… the city cannot live
and breathe if we have this immobile, stiff, stuck vision…”
Hearing these unpleasant words about the physiognomy of
Haussmann’s Paris is a reminder that some Parisians repudiate it and even see
in a “bourgeois culture.” Needless to say, we appreciate a masterpiece more
when we understand the context in which it appeared. That was my goal in
publishing in May 2012 Special Issue No. 4 of the journal Monts 14 entitled Le
langage architectural au temps d’Haussmann, (Architectural Language During
Haussmann’s Time), a document that dares to make the comparison with the
Renaissance in Florence, Italy in the 15th century.
The fight against the Triangle Tower
Following the municipal elections of 2008, Mayor Delanoë’s
Socialist Party had an absolute majority in the city legislature. He
immediately began to push on Parisians plans for skyscrapers at six locations
in Paris. On September 25 that year, the Triangle Tower project was presented
at City Hall to an audience of dazzled journalists.
The tower is supposed to make more attractive the Parc des
expositions exhibition complex at Porte de Versailles on the southeastern edge
of the city (15th arrondissement) by creating hotel rooms, conference halls, a
business incubator, etc. In reality, only one large company, of international
scope, is interested in occupying space there. Offended at having been left in
the dark, Philippe Goujon, mayor (UMP, conservative party) of the 15th
arrondissement, declared, “The project disintegrated in my eyes: no hotel
rooms, no conference halls, offices for whom?”
That was before the financial crisis weighed down on the
real estate market for office space in 2009. Nevertheless, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor
Delanoë’s right hand [Editor’s note: and presumed candidate to replace him in
2014], launched a communications campaign on the theme “Change the image of
Paris.”
Two years later, an exhibition about the projected changes
took place at the district hall of the 15th arrondissement from June 28 to
September 2, 2011. District Mayor Goujon was again in favor of the project. A
public inquiry was conducted that fall to gather the comments regarding the
proposed development.
During that period, Mont 14 and other associations opposed
to the project—Jeunes Parisiens de Paris, ADAHPE, APXV and SOS Paris (the most
international and Anglophone of these groups)—formed the Collective Against the
Triangle Tower.
Towers - Collective against the Triangle Tower
Collective Against the Triangle Tower gains traction
These efforts began to bear fruit. Having gathered the
observations 300 people as well as 1700 signatures on a petition by Monts 14,
the commissioner of the inquiry noted in his official report of April 2012,
along with remarks favorable to the tower, three reservations to the project:
concerning traffic, the shadow caused by the tower and the partial amputation
of the Parc des expositions. In particular, the report asked Mr. Delanoë to
justify that the project would not weaken the role of the exhibition complex in
terms of international competition.
Indeed, the tower as then planned would amputate from 6000 square meters
(65000 square feet )
of the exhibition complex’s Hall 1,
a unique window to the world for the major French
automobile manufacturers during the Automobile Show held here every two years
in the fall. In support of the Automobile Show, the Collective Against the
Triangle Tower demonstrated at the show’s opening on September 29, 2012. The
demonstration made the front page of the newspaper Le Parisien. The newspaper
Le Figaro followed suit. Another demonstration, on the occasion of the Boat
Show, took place on December 8. This time the Collective was joined by
representatives of the political parties MODEM, Jeunes democrats, EELV, Debout
la république and Parti de Gauche.
A turning point in the fight
Their presence represents a turning point in the fight.
Indeed, there are prejudices that are difficult to combat. Faced with the
penury of reasonably priced housing, Parisians often see towers in a positive
light. Mr. Delanoë finds it easy to toady to their anxiety by luring them with
the promise of mixed-use towers with space for both business and lodging. We
have repeatedly remarked that as far as lodging goes such high-rises are
expensive to build per square meter and their maintenance costs are excessive
(500€ per month for a 3-room apartment in the Olympiades complex on the
southwest edge of Paris). Their primary purpose is apparently not to created
affordable housing for inhabitants of the city.
Delanoë’s totem
The sole interest for constructing a building such as the
Triangle Tower in Paris is its totemic value. A massive building overshadowing
the city can have communications value for a large company or for the mayor of
Paris. Mr. Delanoë would like to be identified with the totem of the Triangle
Tower. However, there’s a far more emblematic vision to consider, that of the
Great Boulevards, of stone buildings, of Haussmannian rooftops, of the Galeries
Lafayette, of diversity and cultural richness.
It’s the attraction of that vision that explains why Paris
is the most world’s most visited city. Such attractiveness is France’s good
fortune, but it’s one that risks being wasted. Towers are now commonplace;
worldwide, about 15000 towers rise over 100 meters (328 feet ). Towers draw our
attention like a lightning rod attracts lightning. Building towers would
interfere with the Paris skyline and make it commonplace.
"This is the Paris we're being promised." Jan
Wyers of SOS Paris imagines the view from the Eiffel Tower of a ring of
skyscrapers on the edge of the city.
“This is the Paris we’re being promised.” Jan Wyers of SOS
Paris imagines the view from the Eiffel Tower of a ring of skyscrapers on the
edge of the city.
Mr. Delanoë has had to regroup following the reservations
put forth last year by the commissioner of the inquiry. Still attached to the
hotel rooms and convention halls that he had wanted housed in the tower, he’s
now looking to build them elsewhere within the same sector. Mr. Delanoë has now
launched another public inquiry in an attempt to “modernize” the Parc des
Exposition with the creation of hotel rooms and meeting halls. That absolutely
does not justify the construction of the Triangle Tower as an office tower!
Let’s refuse to let Paris be disfigured
The Triangle Tower will be voted on by the Council of Paris
on the July 18, 2013. If approved, the association Monts 14 will bring the
matter before the administrative tribunal on the grounds that this project is
not in the public interest. We will then do our part in ensuring that the
debate about the physiognomy of Paris is among the major issues of next year’s
municipal elections.
Whether you live in France, in the United States or
elsewhere around world, we invite all those who love Paris to support this
fight by signing the petition found here, writing to the major or to your local
representative in Paris, joining an association, attending our debates and
demonstrations, and letting it be known that you refuse to let Paris be
disfigured.
Patrice Maire
Patrice Maire is president of the association Monts 14 and
editor of the journal produced by the association. For information about the
association and its efforts to halt the construction of the Triangle Tower see
www.monts14.com.
Mont 14 is one of the associations that grouped under the
banner Collective Against the Triangle Tower. Another among them is SOS Paris,
which has many foreign and English-speaking members.
Patrice Maire’s text in France was translated for France
Revisited by Gary Lee Kraut, April 2013.
The opinion expressed above is presented to give a sense of
the debate surrounding the Triangle Tower and does not necessarily reflect that
of France Revisited.
For France Revisited’s introduction to the subject of the
Triangle Tower and of other high-rises in Paris read: Paris on the Edge: Does
the French Capital Need High-Rises and Towers to Stay Relevant.
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