Archive for the ‘architecture’ Category

The Croulebarbe Tower – The First Skyscraper in Paris

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013
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Croulebarbe Tower

Croulebarbe Tower
Photograph by www.Discover.Paris

In the late 1950s, architect Edouard Albert erected a tall apartment building near Place d’Italie in the 13th arrondissement that was quickly dubbed “the first skyscraper in Paris.” Read about this remarkable structure in this month’s Paris Insights.

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Bonne lecture!

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Henri Sauvage’s Stepped-terrace Building Gets a New Face

Thursday, June 27th, 2013
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Henri Sauvage's Stepped-terrace Building on Rue Vavin

Henri Sauvage’s Stepped-terrace Building (1912-1913) on Rue Vavin
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

The scaffolding of Art Nouveau – Art Deco architect Henri Sauvage’s (1873-1932) stepped-terrace building at 26, rue Vavin was being dismantled yesterday to reveal a sparkling-clean, refurbished façade.

Stepped terraces are not the only unusual feature of this building. Sauvage chose to cover the façade with white, glazed stoneware tiles, the material that is commonly used for the walls of most metro stations in Paris, because of the ease with which it can be washed. The use of these tiles fulfills Sauvage’s concern for hygiene, which was a widespread social concern at the time. The tiles can also be seen as a manifestation of his desire to make a break with the past. It was a declaration of architectural modernity!

Sauvage built another stepped-terrace building at 13, rue des Amiraux in the 18th arrondissement.

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A Worldwide Call to Action

Monday, December 3rd, 2012
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Letter to Mayor Delanoë

I Mailed My Letter Today to Mayor Delanoë
Have You Sent Yours?

Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

This is a pressing issue that affects all who love Paris.

Plans are being made to construct new skyscrapers in the city—towers that will distort the skyline and disfigure the neighborhoods in which they will be built. A French association called SOS Paris is campaigning to stop this madness.

Please join me in writing a letter to Mayor Delanoë to express your discontent over these plans. The letter may be in English, but should be mailed to him via the post office, not sent by Internet.

Further information about how to proceed can be found on my Facebook page and on the SOS Paris Web site.

If you approve of this campaign, please “Like” my Facebook post entitled “An Open Letter to Mayor Delanoë,” comment on it, and share it with your friends.

And if you are in Paris, join SOS Paris on Saturday, December 8 at 3:00 p.m. at place de la Porte de Versailles to protest the plans to disfigure Paris! See you there!

Click here to learn how you can join the SOS Paris letter-writing campaign against skyscrapers in the City of Light. The time to act is NOW!

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Yes, You Can Take Action to Stop the Towers!

Friday, November 30th, 2012
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Proposed Skyline of Paris

Proposed Skyline of Paris
©Jan Wyers

The response to my open letter to Mayor Delanoë has been heartening! Now, please join the international campaign and write your own letter to the mayor of Paris expressing your opposition to the proposed towers. Yes, a real letter, sent by mail. It can be in English and should be brief. Please follow this link to read the guidelines.

Make your opinion heard! Act NOW!

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Click here to learn how you can join the SOS Paris letter-writing campaign against skyscrapers in the City of Light. The time to act is NOW!

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An Open Letter to Mayor Delanoë

Thursday, November 29th, 2012
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November 29, 2012

Monsieur Bertrand Delanoë
Maire de Paris
Hôtel de Ville
Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, 75196 Paris cedex 04
France

Dear Mayor Delanoë,

I am writing to express my concern about the current projects to build three more skyscrapers in Paris. Having lived in the city for twenty years now, I have come to appreciate its magnificent architectural heritage and to fear the assaults that are being made upon it.

The beauty of the architecture that makes Paris a world-class city is fading, as modern buildings replace old ones without any regard to the visual impact that their design may have on the surrounding locality. Three new skyscrapers can only aggravate this situation; they will help turn Paris into a hodgepodge of architectural styles, with each new structure vying for attention at the expense of the old and venerable.

We have only to look at the Montparnasse tower for an example of the visual devastation that a skyscraper wreaks upon a neighborhood. It would seem that city planners should have learned a lesson from this disaster and would refrain from planning more of the same. But no! The same battles to prevent the destruction of the city’ priceless architectural heritage have to be fought again and again.

Please stop this madness.

Sincerely,
Tom Reeves

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Click here to learn how you can join the SOS Paris letter-writing campaign against skyscrapers in the City of Light. The time to act is NOW!

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Join the Letter-writing Campaign against Skyscrapers in Paris—Make It Viral! by Mary Campbell Gallager

Friday, November 16th, 2012
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Projet Triangle

Projet Triangle
Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron

Along with Rome and Washington, D.C., Paris is one of the few remaining mid-rise world capitals. Offering glorious walks along the quais beside the Seine, with the Cathedral of Notre Dame ahead and the low Paris horizon beyond, Paris is also the world’s most-visited city, with some 28 million visitors a year.

With the blessing of the Mayor and the Paris City Council, however, developers are poised to attack Paris from within. In July of 2008, the City Council decreed that six skyscraper projects of up to 50 stories should be built at the city’s gates. Now is the time for world opinion, Parisians themselves, UNESCO, and the World Monuments Fund, to raise an outcry so loud that it stays the backhoes.

If you oppose plans for skyscrapers in Paris, please join me in the SOS Paris anti-towers letter-writing campaign and make it viral! Mail your letter on November 24 in the U.S., or on December 1 in Europe. Tell your friends! We want to have a million letters opposing the skyscrapers to land on Mayor Delanoë’s desk the first week in December. That’s right before our next anti-skyscrapers demonstration, which will be held on December 8.

Here is the address:

Mr. Bertrand Delanoë (Note the two dots over the E)
Mayor of Paris
Place de l’Hôtel de Ville
Paris, France
75004

U.S. postage is $1.05 or three Forever stamps. Be sure to include your
return address inside and on the envelope.

Here are three templates:

Dear Mr. Delanoë,

There is no advantage in making Paris look like every other city in the world.
Paris is unique!
Paris is Paris!
Skyscrapers will diminish Paris in the eyes of the world.
Please let Paris be Paris!

Sincerely, (or it you prefer, Sincerement)

Your name

or

Dear Mr. Delanoë,

Ville-Musée – Non!
Ville-Bijou – Oui!
No Towers, SVP

Sincerely,

Your name

or

Dear Mr. Delanoë,

Ne gâchez pas Paris.
Do not spoil Paris.
No Towers SVP.

Sincerely,

Your name.

For information about plans for skyscrapers in Paris, here is my recent article on the Classicist blog: http://blog.classicist.org/?p=5475. And here is a short video I made about skyscrapers in Paris: bit.ly/Lta0eH.

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Born and raised in Chicago and trained as a lawyer at Harvard, Mary Campbell Gallagher is a professional speaker, the owner of a business, BarWrite® and BarWrite Press, that offers Continuing Legal Education classes and prepares candidates for the bar exam, and a writer dedicated to the prosperity of New York City’s economy and to the preservation of Parisian urbanism.

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Bay Windows on Rue Descartes

Saturday, November 10th, 2012
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Bay Windows on Rue Descartes

Bay Windows on Rue Descartes
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

In 1882 a city ordinance permitted the construction of bay windows in wood or metal starting with the étage noble and rising up no more than three stories. Oddly enough, the ordinance required that the windows be removable, which accounts for their fragile-looking elegance. These bay windows are located at 29-33, rue Descartes in the 5th arrondissement. The buildings were constructed in 1897.

Bay windows are called bow-windows in French. They are also called oriels in both French and English.

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Building at 5, rue Vésale in the 5th Arrondissement

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
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Electrical Substation

Electrical Substation
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

This building of iron and brick standing at 5, rue Vésale in the 5th arrondissement used to be an electrical substation of the Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d’Electricité. It once provided electrical power to the Gobelins quarter, but now serves as an emergency shelter for needy families.

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Paris Insights Monthly Newsletter — Adieu Paris, We Hardly Knew Ye

Thursday, November 1st, 2012
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SOS Paris

From left to right: Jan Wyers, Secretary General of SOS Paris; Monique Amy, Representative of the 16th Arrondissement; Christine Nedelec, Vice-Secretary General; Monique Dior, Editor of SOS Paris Newsletter

SOS Paris is an association founded in 1973 for the purpose of defending the city’s architectural heritage. In October, I had the opportunity to meet with four members of the group to learn what can be done to safeguard the beauty of the city that is falling prey to politicians and developers who seem not to care about preserving its historic character. Read my account in this month’s Paris Insights.

Bonne lecture!

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The “Belly” of Paris Is Being Gutted Again

Sunday, October 7th, 2012
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Les Halles de Paris

Les Halles de Paris
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net

Forty years ago the city ripped the guts out of its central marketplace and tore down Victor Baltard’s famous iron and glass pavilions. Now the city is at it again, promising to put in something better than the mediocre park that replaced Baltard’s splendid structures. Whatever the city puts there, nothing can redress the irreparable damage done to Paris’ patrimony in 1971-73.

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