Transports
Gare du Nord: The City of Paris has filed an appeal against the transformation project
The City of Paris has filed its appeal against the controversial plan to transform the Gare du Nord, after the state’s decision this summer to issue the building permit, we learned from the town hall on Friday.
The appeal was filed with the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, according to the same source, confirming information from the Parisian.
The regional prefect Michel Cadot had given the green light on July 7 to the commercial component of the renovation and transformation project of the Gare du Nord, despite the opposition of the town hall, which considered it too commercial. The building permit was signed with an “objective of delivering the works necessary for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”, the prefect had specified.
The gigantic construction site provides for a major facelift of the first station in Europe, 155 years old and frequented by 700,000 travelers every day. Led by SNCF Gares & Connexions and the Auchan property company, Ceetrus, it notably provides for the construction of shops, offices and cultural facilities.
88,000 additional m2
For 600 million euros, the project provides for a one-hectare green roof terrace with a view of the Sacré Coeur, with a trail track, parking for 2,000 bikes, and a large transverse nave. The regional prefect announced his decision “following a careful investigation and in view of the favorable opinion issued by the (national) commission of inquiry (Editor’s note last October) and all the consultations carried out” , had indicated the prefecture. “The government has just invented a Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the heart of Paris,” reacted Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy mayor of Paris.
The city initially supported this renovation, but then judged this project “contrary to the ecological and urban requirements of the newly elected Parisian executive”. With an additional 88,000 m2, the Gare du Nord should reach a total area of 124,000 m2.
About twenty renowned architects, including Jean Nouvel and Roland Castro, had judged this project “unacceptable” and “pharaonic”, in a column published in Le Monde, asking that it be “completely rethought”.
(with AFP)
