A New Paris, as Dreamed by Planners

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A New Paris, as Dreamed by Planners

PARIS ? Hand it to the French. Who else would pick an economic collapse as a time to unveil one of the most audacious urban plans in recent memory?

Yet the 10 proposals for a new master plan for metropolitan Paris, which were unveiled last week, may just be the kind of brazen idealism the world needs right now.

The results of a nine-month study commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the proposals aim to transform Paris and its surrounding suburbs into the first sustainable ?post-Kyoto city,? a reference to the treaty on climate change, with an expanded M?tro system and sprawling new parks.

The government has yet to say how it would raise the money to build this new city. And Mr. Sarkozy?s opponents, who have sometimes dismissed him as ?President Bling-Bling,? have questioned whether this is anything more than an elaborate publicity stunt.

But even if none of the proposals are ever built, they show a daring that has not been seen in a Western city for decades. The teams range in experience from well-established international stars like Richard Rogers and Christian de Portzamparc to French architects who are just beginning their careers. All forsook flashy imagery for a deep analysis of the city?s diverse communities and the fraying tissue that binds them together. At the very least, the results should force a radical reappraisal of Paris?s identity. The enchanted city most of us know through holidays and films is a compact metropolis of roughly two million people that lies within the p?riph?rique, the elevated freeway that encircles the old city. Its pretty medieval streets and broad boulevards are held up as a model of the ideal city.

But for decades the vast majority of Parisians have lived in the generic apartment blocks and squalid housing projects that make up most of the suburbs. These include the poor immigrant neighborhoods that erupted in violence in 2005.

The aim of the study was twofold: to create a plan for a greener, more sustainable city, and to break down the isolation between the outlying neighborhoods and the historic center. The most thought-provoking designs operate on multiple levels, reaching beyond the issue of sustainability to address deeply entrenched social ills.

Among the most audacious is Mr. de Portzamparc?s plan, which proposes demolishing both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l?Est and replacing them with a single massive European train station just outside the city center. The station would link to the Eurostar train lines to London and Brussels, as well as to a new elevated maglev train that would run above the p?riph?rique. It would also anchor a towering new global business district, a rival to La D?fense.

Mr. Rogers?s plan is equally ambitious. Noting that the tracks that connect to the city?s main train stations cut Paris into wedges, like slices of a pie, he proposes burying them all underground. A vast system of public parks would be draped over these new underground tracks, connecting poor and middle-class neighborhoods. A new M?tro line would ring the outer city; more trains would tie the system back to the historic center.

Other plans are more poetic. Jean Nouvel proposes creating a green belt that would circle the entire city. All future construction would be concentrated inside this belt, adding density to what are now sprawling, isolated communities. New towers would punctuate some of the outlying boulevards, adding visual markers where there are none. The outer ring would become a sort of 620-mile-long community garden, with residents tending their plots along an endless string of parks and fields. The idea is to give a powerful identity to the most anonymous parts of the city.

And then there are the usual provocateurs. Djamel Klouche, at 42 the youngest of the participants, has proposed transforming the space underneath the Louvre pyramid into a bustling M?tro hub, making one of Paris?s greatest cultural monuments the main entry point to the city center for its immigrant masses. The Paris-based Roland Castro suggests moving existing monuments, including the ?lys?e Palace, to the city?s grittiest outlying neighborhoods.

Yet all of the projects recognize the strong link between urban policy and social equality. In tying environmental concerns to issues of identity, they suggest ways to begin reversing the growing social divisions that mark the contemporary city. If they inspire a broader global debate on these tensions, they will already have accomplished something of significant value.
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Link
 
Among the most audacious is Mr. de Portzamparc?s plan, which proposes demolishing both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l?Est and replacing them with a single massive European train station just outside the city center.
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Awful.
 
Tar, feathers, idiot 'expert' = some assembly required.

"The Paris-based Roland Castro suggests moving existing monuments, including the ?lys?e Palace, to the city?s grittiest outlying neighborhoods."

Somehow I think Roland is a useful idiot whom has never set foot in any of those neighborhoods. Places which find automotive flambes a spectator sport aren't going to suddenly become enlightened late drinking masses musing over the complexities of opera due to the presence of some cultural landmark. Especially when those residents reject the native culture in favor of ethnic barbarism.

And what is with all this garbage about silly park systems being sustainable? Emerald Necklaces are wonderful, but when they wind up propagating anti-urban developments, how sustainable is that?
 
Both those stations survived carpet bombing during the Great Patriotic War and have been serving passengers successfully for a century. Shifting everything to one centralized station, while making transfers easier, is going to concentrate congestion and development around one point. The hub system of rail stations around Paris was well planned in its day and I really have little faith in the theory crowd for redesigning a plan which has stood the test of time for so long.
 
Didn't almost all of Paris survive bombing during the war?

I like the plan to make the Louvre pyramid a central point of entry. Les Halles feels like a seedy, stigmatized mini-ghetto where it exgorges the residents of the banlieues, but at the Louvre the tourists would be forced to put up with them.

I think most of the rest of these plans are self-consciously "statements" about Paris' segregated urban condition, designed to get attention and nothing more. There's no need for alarm.
 
czsz said:
I think most of the rest of these plans are self-consciously "statements" about Paris' segregated urban condition, designed to get attention and nothing more. There's no need for alarm.
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Paris inside the Peripherique is like Manhattan. Similar population, similar area, similar functions, similar wealth.
 
Especially when those residents reject the native culture in favor of ethnic barbarism
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In a US context, that statement would be equivalent to saying "why can't those Brazilians in Framingham learn to speak English and become Americans?" Which is a pretty offensive thing to say.
 
Paris inside the Peripherique is like Manhattan. Similar population, similar area, similar functions, similar wealth.
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I've often heard the comparison, but I think the subways in New York bind the city (and its population) more tightly than the hub-and-spoke of Paris' metro (and, more to the point, RER). Most people moving by subway within Manhattan has to deal with through passengers going from Brooklyn to the Bronx or Queens, which is not necessarily the case in Paris. There are also fewer low-income commuters to central Paris than there are to, say, security and janitorial jobs in the business districts of Manhattan, because so many of these functions have been farmed out to La Defense and its little sisters. This is the reason so many of these planning schemes want to reimagine the Paris region's rail system, specifically.
 
czsz said:
I've often heard the comparison, but I think the subways in New York bind the city (and its population) more tightly than the hub-and-spoke of Paris' metro (and, more to the point, RER). Most people moving by subway within Manhattan has to deal with through passengers going from Brooklyn to the Bronx or Queens, which is not necessarily the case in Paris.
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I think you've identified another similarity, not a difference. You're describing a hub-and-spoke system for New York as well (correctly). RER lets you live in Massy-Palaiseau and commute to your job in La Defense. Just like through-commuting in New York.

There are also fewer low-income commuters to central Paris than there are to, say, security and janitorial jobs in the business districts of Manhattan
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Plenty of street-sweepers and cashiers in central Paris. Again, more similarity than difference.

This is the reason so many of these planning schemes want to reimagine the Paris region's rail system, specifically.
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Actually, they're reimagining the tracks and stations of the long-distance trunk lines as they penetrate into Paris.

You're right that these proposals are socio-political rhetoric, not actual proposals. They will never be implemented (except maybe some of Rogers' parks --and even these aren't really needed).
 
Ron Newman said:
In a US context, that statement would be equivalent to saying "why can't those Brazilians in Framingham learn to speak English and become Americans?" Which is a pretty offensive thing to say.
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No Ron, there is no US context. The worst neighborhoods in the United States pale in comparison to the urban hells surrounding Paris. The worst ghetto in Detriot looks like Mr.Roger's neighborhood compared to what one can find in the outskirts of Paris.

The Brazilians in Framingham go to work, go to school, don't commit arson on a daily basis for fun, gang rape isnt' an epidemic, police don't have no go zones, nor do they required armored vehicles to face molotov cocktails when there is an incident. Paris' outer regions literally have areas where behavior straight out of A Clockwork Orange is commonplace and tolerated.
 
Lurker said:
Somehow I think Roland is a useful idiot whom has never set foot in any of those neighborhoods. Places which find automotive flambes a spectator sport aren't going to suddenly become enlightened late drinking masses musing over the complexities of opera due to the presence of some cultural landmark. Especially when those residents reject the native culture in favor of ethnic barbarism.
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Lurker said:
No Ron, there is no US context. The worst neighborhoods in the United States pale in comparison to the urban hells surrounding Paris. The worst ghetto in Detriot looks like Mr.Roger's neighborhood compared to what one can find in the outskirts of Paris.

The Brazilians in Framingham go to work, go to school, don't commit arson on a daily basis for fun, gang rape isnt' an epidemic, police don't have no go zones, nor do they required armored vehicles to face molotov cocktails when there is an incident. Paris' outer regions literally have areas where behavior straight out of A Clockwork Orange is commonplace and tolerated.
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Van's Youtube video certainly supports your contention.

Was it made by a gang member?
 
"Van's" Youtube video is one of the most disturbing things I have seen in a while...and here's the internet offering these barbarians a medium for worldwide publicity.

Let me crawl back into my protective bubble.
 
ledjes said:
"Van's" Youtube video is one of the most disturbing things I have seen in a while...and here's the internet offering these barbarians a medium for worldwide publicity.
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Well to be fair it is a fictional music video. But fiction based on reality none the less.
 
Extremely well done video in my opinion. I also enjoyed the song despite not normally listening to anything of that type.
 
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