PARIS | Full Summary of Projects

[mousquet]

Fresh political news, brand new mayor of the city of Paris elected today, Anne Hidalgo:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hidalgo

What it means for development in Central Paris, that's still to be taken separately from the inner suburbs for now:

1 - definitely more highrises since unlike her conservative rival, Hidalgo's openly in favor of more tall buildings within Central Paris. That is her very good point. However, she'll have to face the many many local NIMBYs over and over, and deal with them anyhow. She's quite used to that yet, anyway.

2 - still too much of social housing, cause Hidalgo (who's actually just a liberal) is from the Socialist Party. So she'll have to follow the trend of the party she belongs to in that matter. As mentioned in my post above, excessive social housing has a wrong speculative effect on local real estate, dramatically increasing the price of market rate real estate. That's a bad issue all over the city.

3 - the so-called anti-car and mass transit policy will most likely be pushed further, since Hidalgo's allied to the local Green tribe. That's a very good point to me, but many will disagree on that.

That's what I can tell about that for now. We'll see how she works. She'd better be a damn hard worker, though...

[New Brisavoine]

For those who can read German, here is an excellent article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the municipal elections in Paris. The German journalist has completely understood that Paris is much larger than the city proper, and this is quite rare among the myopic crew of foreign correspondents, who live in the pampered central areas of Paris and often have a distorted view of the city.

Paris
Junge Stadt der Liebe und der Leiden

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
29.03.2014

Am Sonntag wählen die Pariser eine Bürgermeisterin. Wie geht es dann mit Frankreichs Hauptstadt weiter? Klar ist: Von seinem Speckgürtel kann sich Paris in seiner halbheilen Welt nicht mehr abschotten.


Die Metro verstopft, die RER gestrichen, der Vorstadtzug verspätet - Alltag der „Franciliens“.

Mit einem hellen Klicken öffnet sich das Schloss des grauen Drahtesels. Man legt seine Bahnkarte einfach auf das Elektronikfeld eines Stahlpfostens neben dem Zweirad, und schon geht die Verriegelung auf. Die Tour mit dem städtischen Mietfahrrad an der Seine kann beginnen. Ein Lastkahn mit verschwitzten Arbeitern macht gerade am Ufer hinter einem Touristenboot fest; Rollschuhfahrer gleiten vorbei, Kinder recken sich an Klettergerüsten; zwischen großen Töpfen voll Gras und Bäumen öffnet sich der Blick auf das Glasdach des Grand Palais. Ein Café-Betreiber stellt Klappstühle auf. Hundebesitzer schlendern mit ihren Vierbeinern vorbei.

[...]

Dies wirft ein Schlaglicht auf die Sonderlage von Paris. Die Metropole ist ein dichtbesiedelter, aber kleiner Fleck mit 2,3 Millionen Einwohnern inmitten des Molloch „Île de France“, der fast 12 Millionen Menschen beherbergt. Paris ist eine der kleinsten Weltstädte, selbst Toulouse verfügt über mehr Fläche, Rom hat elfmal so viel. Wie in einem lebenden Museum sind die Bürgerhäuser, Kirchen und Plätze im Herzen der Stadt herausgeputzt, doch das ist nur möglich, weil die Problemzonen außerhalb liegen. Die Aufstände der Immigrantenkinder brachen 2005 nicht umsonst in den nördlichen Banlieues jenseits der Stadtgrenze des Périphérique aus. Viele Pariser kennen die ärmlichen Vorstädte nur von der Fahrt zum Stade de France in Saint-Denis oder vom Weg zum Flughafen Roissy-Charles de Gaulle. Die Unruhen verfolgten sie am Fernseher.

Doch heute kann sich Paris in seiner halbheilen Welt nicht mehr abschotten von seinem Gürtel, der immer mehr Speck enthält. Ob bei Luftqualität, öffentlichem Verkehr, Müll oder Straßenplanung – die Kommunen müssen zusammenarbeiten. Aber im Gegensatz zu allen anderen französischen Großstädten gibt es keinen Kommunalverband für Paris und sein Umland. Dieser soll durch die Einführung der „Métropole du Grand Paris“ erst 2016 kommen. „Darüber wurde im Wahlkampf überhaupt nicht gesprochen. Doch ich erwarte dadurch einen Transfer von Kompetenzen und von Budgetmitteln. Die reichen Departements werden etwa unter Druck kommen, mehr Sozialwohnungen zu bauen“, sagt Philippe Subra, Geographie-Professor an der Universität in Saint-Denis. Wenn es um die Macht im Ballungsraum geht, ist die Stimme des Pariser Bürgermeisters somit nur eine von vielen.

Die Regierung auf nationaler Ebene redet ebenso mit wie die Region Île de France, sieben umliegende Departements, 400 Kommunen sowie zahlreiche Kommunalverbände. Die anstehende Gebietsreform soll einfachere Strukturen, mehr Effizienz und dadurch Einsparungen bringen. In der Vergangenheit lebten die alten Verwaltungsebenen mit ihren vielen Beamten indes immer weiter, wenn eine neue Behörde geschaffen worden war. Seitdem sprechen die Franzosen von dem „mille-feuille“ ihres Verwaltungsapparates – tausend Papiere, tausend Türen, wie bei Kafka.

[...]

An all diesen Spannungen wird sich die künftige Bürgermeisterin abarbeiten – so wie ihre Vorgänger. Immerhin wird sie sich darauf verlassen können, dass Paris mit seinem Umland wohl ein wirtschaftliches Kraftzentrum bleibt. Die Region erwirtschaftet heute ein Bruttoinlandsprodukt in der Höhe der ganzen Niederlande. Als internationales Drehkreuz koppelt sie sich aufgrund ihrer Eigendynamik von der allgemeinen Wirtschaftsflaute Frankreichs ab. Menschen und Firmen ziehen weg, doch neue kommen immer wieder hinzu. Unter Immobilienexperten gilt Paris als eine sichere Bank: Die Preise bleiben hoch, und es finden sich immer Käufer. Paris, das ist ein Perpetuum mobile, das sich wirtschaftlich regelmäßig selbst erneuert. Ob es sich auch politisch neu erfindet, wird sich von Sonntag an zeigen.

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaf...-12868841.html

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

For those who can read German...

mhm, ok... ouais ouais.

[mousquet]

La Défense looking cool through Cyril's lense.

From Saint-Cloud.


From Issy-les-Moulineaux.




That view from Issy is going to be partly obstructed by a couple of highrises projected right there.

[Minato Ku]

Quartz shopping mall (Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northern inner suburbs).
This new shopping mall opened today.
86,000m² - 925,000 sq ft, 165 shops and restaurants.

This shopping mall is located on the bank of the Seine near the A86 freeway.
The surrounding of the mall are still made of industrial buildings and wasteland but this is about to change.

Unfortunately, this mall is made for car, it is not very pedestrian friendly.
Pedestrians have to enter in the mall via the parkings.
The shopping area is located on the upper floors while parkings space are in the lower floors.














There is a terrace overlooking the Seine river.

A view of Pleyel tower located in Saint-Denis

[Minato Ku]

Docks De Saint-Ouen redevelopment area.
Former industrial land in northern inner suburbs.

[mousquet]

Saint-Ouen looks like far too much concrete and not enough glass. If claddings are too cheap, which is likely, the new neighborhood will quickly turn into a poor ghetto.

Hm. It's very good to know those communist cavemen lost the town from the municipal elections lately. That'll teach them.

[mousquet]

I'm quickly compiling more informations about that development in Saint-Ouen to balance my previous offensive post, cause it sucks, honestly.

Quite obviously from seeing the renderings below, les Docks de Saint-Ouen is a total standard éco-quartier, the very signature of the French contemporary architecture. Éco-quartier is the French marketing term for low energy consumption neighborhood developed in a rather green urban fashion. Thereby those seemingly narrow windows lost in concrete walls on the pictures of the construction site 2 posts above, for unless using some expensive triple-glazed windows, large glass bays would cause heat loss while this whole development is meant to be affordable. So although that concrete bulk that's still visible scared me personally, the final result should nevertheless be interesting, at least partly, and quite far from a mediocre "grand ensemble", that kind of large post-war neighborhoods where insane brutalist concrete and surface parking lots rule, that indeed widely became the poor ghettos of today in France. Éco-quartier is mostly what they build all over the country today. I now think this thing should eventually be a fair base for further developments and redevelopments locally in Saint-Ouen that's a significant town for the metro area, since downright neighboring Central Paris to the north of the city.

4 residential projects are listed on the official site of the overall development.

ADN (means DNA) by Bouygues Immobilier.











Something they strangely call Manhattan (lol, seriously?) by Cogedim.











Kroma Verde by Eiffage Immobilier.











And Home+ by Nexity











Most buildings seem 10 to 15 floors tall. I can't see any commercial/retail space, that's too bad. I quickly took a look at prices, they are quite interesting for real, given how close to the central city this is, and the unobstructed views of those renderings. Between €4 and 5k per square meter (say roughly US$600 per square foot), I just saw. That's pretty remarkable.

[mousquet]

Archiphile shooting some Paris-Rive-Gauche on pss-archi.eu.

[mousquet]

I gotta say something for the record. This large portrait seen in the previous post is a picture of Farhat Hached, a unionist from Tunisia who's been murdered by the French intelligence in 1952 for standing against colonialism.


http://www.semapa.fr/Actualites/Inau...is-Rive-Gauche

I guess it's that kind of local way to beg for forgiveness, lol. Also to exorcise old devils, and some way for the French to convince themselves that they're strong enough to acknowledge their faults. There's been indeed quite a load of expressed remorse related to the colonial past in the country, which sometimes makes me cruelly laugh when I sense hypocrisy hidden behind that behaviour. However, it's also sometimes really touching, when it feels genuine. And necessary to some extent so that everyone (both executioners and victims, all humiliated anyhow in the end) can restore their dignity. That's what I personally see in that portrait.

Anyway, it's a fortunate thing to have it drawn on that building that would otherwise be rather boring, huh.

[mousquet]

Ah, so Spanish international hotel chain Meliá is going to set up a 4-star hotel in there, that's obviously at la Défense, eh.











Those above are to the esplanade side. The building looks different to the boulevard.



Thanks to Issy's Vincent on pss-archi.

Meliá released some renderings of their planned interiors, as seen on defense-92.fr.











That looks fair. Bon ok, if you guys are wealthy enough, there will be a 5 stars hotel offering views over Central Paris in a Hermitage tower that'll sit over the very same area. But of course, I'd recommend Meliá for a more reasonable deal on a budget.

[mousquet]

Our Minato's picture of a mid 70's bad fortress known as the tours du Pont de Sèvres, undergoing renovation in Boulogne-Billancourt.

[mousquet]

Hey folks, welcome to French socialist haven Central Paris! A building on rue du Louvre in the 1st arrondissement renovated and turned into some of their social housing.
So that's supposed to be subsidized exclusively for the working and lower middle classes, eh.







The courtyard in there is rather bland and narrow, though.


Interiors.









And the bathrooms are sober.

http://www.batiactu.com/edito/entre-...ele--38212.php

Of course at market rate and despite that narrow courtyard, anything in there would be madly expensive. You just should see the district all around. And you know what? There must be hundreds of thousands of applications for that kind of social housing right within the heart of the central city, and the local administration chooses the very few subsidized lucky tenants themselves, amongst the countless applicants. Yep... So hopefully, somebody neutral around watches corruption, eh. Otherwise, if it truly goes to the poor, then it's really cool.

[joeg1985]

^ Those interior shots are absolutely amazing! I would die for a place like that in Paris.

[mousquet]

Vinci Construction promoting the mixed-use redevelopment of the Macdonald warehouses in the 19th arrondissement.

• Video Link

That video's old (last January) but good with that drone flight over. Forget about that bad reputation that area used to have. It's clearly going to gentrify.

Aladin brought these recent pictures to pss-archi. I think the dude specializes in shots from cranes...









Good to see Central Paris up to itself these days. Terrific density of that kind on every ongoing development. That makes a whole lot of a difference. For instance, you should see Paris Rive Gauche as it is now in person, developed both in that mixed-use contemporary style and in a dense manner, carefully planned. It's actually really good. As an evidence, although it's so recent and so large that it's still a complete mess of construction all around, lots of locals seem to enjoy it already. While recent quarters often take much time to get well established in locals' affection. Local modernism is moving from post-war failures to friendly success, which obviously feels very sweet to me.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by joeg1985

^ Those interior shots are absolutely amazing! I would die for a place like that in Paris.

It's not even what I would call a great Haussmannian apartment. I've seen much better. Plus frankly, living on Rue du Louvre is BORING. The area has become dead since all residents left and were replaced by offices (it's a typical office business district).

That being said, it's absolutely appalling that they invest taxpayer's money in such pieces of real estate to turn them into social housing. It's a typical example of the French welfare state gone mad.

Anyway, hopefully when the Greater Paris Metropolis is created in January 2016 those Socialist nuts in the Paris city hall will become history.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Good to see Central Paris up to itself these days. Terrific density of that kind on every ongoing development. That makes a whole lot of a difference. For instance, you should see Paris Rive Gauche as it is now in person, developed both in that mixed-use contemporary style and in a dense manner, carefully planned. It's actually really good. As an evidence, although it's so recent and so large that it's still a complete mess of construction all around, lots of locals seem to enjoy it already. While recent quarters often take much time to get well established in locals' affection. Local modernism is moving from post-war failures to friendly success, which obviously feels very sweet to me.

Yes, this area is extremely impressive as a contemporary, midrise neighborhood. But even Corbu was doing buildings here and then Perrault with the bibliotheque so it has a strong legacy of modernism.

From America, I'm jealous - American cities have no middle ground between 2-3 story low density and skyscraper neighborhoods, and in all cases the urbanism is terrible and uneven with too many setbacks and parking lots. Obviously the transit system will never measure up to Parisian standards either...

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

It's not even what I would call a great Haussmannian apartment. I've seen much better. Plus frankly, living on Rue du Louvre is BORING. The area has become dead since all residents left and were replaced by offices (it's a typical office business district).

Those interiors are simply great for some social housing. I think the brand new and ridiculous Canopée at les Halles could cause a little harm to the neighborhood for some time, otherwise it's quite a fine area and I expect more housing to come back there.

What would you have said about that social housing component if they had fitted it with some big millionaire interiors? I actually don't mind about it. It's even pretty cool for bringing some social mixity within the central areas. Haven't you learned about lessons taught by social ghettos yet? People there will likely come from some seedy suburbs or ghettos, that'll really positively change them. Also, hopefully they can find some cool opportunities from living Central Paris, for this society lacks social mobility because of the nasty sinful French establishment-like mindset. People can be mean and ugly sometimes, right?

[Minato Ku]

Phase 2 of Cœur de Quartier "Heart of neighborhood" next to Nanterre Université station.
Delivered in 2019

-34,000 m² of housing space, 450 Units (43% of social housing)
-26,000 m² of office space
-10,000 m² of retail space
-Cinema complex on 3 levels (It may be used for other functions: auditorium, multipurpose halls, concert halls)
-"Cube Next’", a 2,000 m² digital creation center with a coworking space

The south side of Nanterre Université station will no longer be a no man's land.
The 30,000 students of Nanterre University had no place to enjoy, eat or shop around the University, except going to La Defense located three stations away.
All the redevelopment in the area will lead to a pedestrian friendly environment from here to La Défense.



http://www.epadesa.fr/actualites/act...st-retenu.html

[mousquet]

Special tribute to Maza from pss-archi for the urban planning degree he's just earned.
Here's a local mid-rise feast he posted, that's in Boulogne-Billancourt.

































































I think I should go to Boulogne for a little walk and check this out for myself. That's a masterplan developed over there. We're getting almost too much of that kind of things. This one is pretty big, though.
Congrats to Maza for his degree again, and thanks to him for his pictures.