Construction begins this week on the new Place de la République, a project 150 years in the making.
At 300 yards by 130 yards, the Place de la République is one of the largest squares in Europe. But its lay-out has been a problem that has bedeviled urban designers since Gabriel Davioud was first entrusted with its design in the 1860s.
A stone’s throw from the constant flow of tourists from the Place du Trocadéro and the Palais de Chaillot down to the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, there is a wonderful little space of seclusion and peace: the Passy Cemetery. Although it is small, this cemetery is a well-tended oasis in the city, full of interesting personalities from the city’s history.
The Bercy neighborhood is frequently used an example of successful contemporary urban planning. One of its successes it to have created a real neighborhood out of nothing on an initially unpromising site. But the other, perhaps more distinctive characteristic of this operation is to have created an urban form which is highly ordered yet diverse, modern yet still recognizably in the tradition of Parisian urban design. It was worth telling the story of this exemplary urban project.
Heyday takes place in the annus mirabilis of 1848. In fact, it is as enveloping an immersion into that time as many of us will ever get.
The 1840s are an era often neglected and misunderstood, glossed over by our history survey courses as they rush from the “Age of Federalism” to the Civil War; or, in the case of European history, that is dispensed with along with the whole nineteenth century with a couple of words about the Industrial Revolution and the creation of nation-states. What Andersen understands, and brilliantly conveys, is the depth of this pivotal, exciting, genuinely revolutionary – in several ways – point in history.
Oberkampf was first created in 1978 by a bunch of kids who hung around the Gibus, a little concert hall in rue du Faubourg du Temple, a stone’s throw from République. The catalyst was the new music that was coming in the form of 45s from London, primarily the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. Joe Hell, who joined the group in early 1979, remembers: “You really have to put it back in context. In 1977 the music was disco, Genesis, Pink Floyd, the Stones getting old… and the Stones wasn’t my music, it was my big brother’s music. Then, when I saw what they [the Sex Pistols] looked like, I said: “That’s it! That’s what I think!””
Greater Paris has a lively, informative and iconoclastic magazine: Megalopolis, part of what may be an international trend of highly localized quality journalism.
The subject of this magazine is the city of Paris, the whole metropolis, in all its facets. In the words of one of the founders: “We launched this magazine with the conviction that it was time to focus on the metropolis, that it was a terrain for investigation and reportage that was not being covered by any quality title.” Continue reading Megalopolis
Paris, Paris, was first published in 2005. Its reissue this year is a perfect opportunity for those who have any level of knowledge or interest in Paris to read this splendid book.
Alain Bublex explains that his contemporary art piece, Contributions, has its source in the urban planning work of Le Grand Paris. He says that looking at the output of the international consultation for Le Grand Paris made him realize that he didn’t actually know Paris, that many of the places mentioned by the architects and planners were known to him – as they are to many people who would say they know Paris, I might add – only in name.
[Note: this is the 4th and final part of a series. If you have not yet read them, you may want to first read Part 1: The Launch, Part 2: The International Consultation, and Part 3: Moving To Implementation]
On October 10, 2011, President Nicolas Sarkozy was back at the Cité de l’Architecture for what had by now become a tradition of a biennial visit. He summarized where Le Grand Paris stood:
Continue reading Le Grand Paris – Part 4: Where Things Stand
[Note: this is part 3 of a series. If you have not yet read them, you may want to first read Part 1: The Launch and Part 2: The International Consultation]
On April 29th, 2009, the day of the opening of the public display of the work of the ten teams of the international consultation, President Sarkozy gave a speech. His words were ambitious: “[The future city] may be the greatest political challenge of the twenty-first century. I want France to meet that challenge. I want France to give the example. That is the ambition of Le Grand Paris.“
Continue reading Le Grand Paris – Part 3: Moving to Implementation
