With the XXXIII Olympic Summer Games slated to bring another vibrant dimension to Paris in 2024, the city is already abuzz with new developments. It’s all part of an effort to modernize the city with a continued emphasis on sustainability while still embodying the spirit of the French capital’s time-honored, classic aesthetic. Here’s a look at what’s to come in the City of Light.
Urban Planning
Plans to expand the city’s eco-conscious footprint are best exemplified by local firm PCA-Stream’s 2030 vision for the storied Avenue des Champs-Élysées. First laid out in the 17th century as the Grand Cours by Louis XIV’s gardener André Le Nôtre, the luxury boutique-lined boulevard pulsates with tourists, yet locals—loathing the crowds and commerce—tend to stay away.
That’s one of the reasons PCA-Stream architect and founder Philippe Chiambaretta is eager to restore the spirit of the promenade’s more glorious days, when it was the backdrop for World’s Fairs, by turning it into a strollable garden full of newly planted trees and shady, verdant “lounges” that woo back Parisians. By scaling back the eight lanes of traffic, installing low-noise road surfacing, and weaving in chef-run kiosks and wellness amenities, the avenue has the chance to once again be a community hub that symbolizes a “sustainable, desirable, and inclusive city,” explains Chiambaretta. “We want to give back the Champs-Élysées to the citizens of Paris and the Île-de-France. The world is collectively experiencing a crisis that makes the environmental emergency more visible than ever and has given rise to an unprecedented need for nature in urban areas.”
Sustainable Promise
With a pledge to make history as the first climate-positive Olympic Games, 95 percent of the venues for the two-and-a-half-week spectacle featured in the masterplan hatched by architecture and engineering firms Populous and Egis are pre-existing or temporary. One of the few new-construction projects is the glass wall-flanked Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis by Ateliers 2/3/4 and Amsterdam firm VenhoevenCS.
Connected to the Stade de France via a new pedestrian bridge, it also doubles as a public facility for residents of the Paris suburb. “After the Games, the building will remain a center for various sporting events and serve as an important catalyst to improve the neighborhood,” says Ateliers 2/3/4 architect Laure Mériaud.
To encourage biodiversity, 100 trees will be planted on the Aquatic Centre’s grounds, while inside spectators will sit on recycled plastic chairs sourced from local schools. The star is the rippling roof sculpted out of wood. Selected for the material’s low carbon emissions, it protectively swoops down from the stands over the modular pool.
“The design is inspired by nature. Like a leaf, the roof combines several functions in a single form: sheltering, filtering light, collecting rainwater, integrating technical networks, and capturing the sun to transform it into vital energy,” says Cécilia Gross, architect partner-director at VenhoevenCS.
Community-Focused Housing
Underscoring this mission is Edison Lite, a housing complex in the 13th arrondissement unveiled last year by local firm Manuelle Gautrand Architecture. One of the winners of the Réinventer Paris competition’s call for innovative urban projects, it combines concrete, timber, and metal and is enlivened by 290 large planters adorning the façade’s windows. Tenants personally weighed in on the design brief and moved into fully landscaped units, which are based on a philosophy of edible permaculture that is fostered by the plots of land parceled out to each of them in the more than 1,600-square-foot roof garden. It’s one of several communal spaces, including a workshop and alfresco kitchen, that serve as an ecosystem, infusing Edison Lite “with real community spirit,” says founder and principal architect Manuelle Gautrand. “They crystallize the residents’ aspirations [and are] able to provide that which an apartment building usually cannot.”
Boutique Experiences
Hospitality development is also a boon for the French city as new hotels flaunt a vivacious and timeless style. In 2020, Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra reopened after a two-year renovation led by local studio Atelier Tristan Auer/Wilson Associates. Set in a mid-19th-century building, it marries the feel of a regal gentlemen’s club with ornate apartment vibes through the likes of terrazzo, bas-reliefs, fabric headboards, and ceilings that recall Marc Chagall.
Part of the city’s Les Hôtels Monsieur collection, Monsieur George Hôtel & Spa, near the Champs-Élysées, also made its debut last year, sporting interiors by London-based Anouska Hempel. The 46-room property, a former “dull and empty office block stuck inside a beautiful Haussman exterior,” as Hempel puts it, “hits you the moment you walk through its doors. Hand-etched glass lanterns, with 100 nightlights twinkling inside them, hang over a table groaning with books.” A palette of dark green—velvet seating piled high with silk cushions, grosgrain ribbon running along the walls, marble tables, and the designer’s own yardstick lamps—“is a throwback to the feel of a sensuous oasis in Marrakech,” Hempel says.
Much more is in the immediate pipeline. Soon to open are the Hôtel Le Belgrand Paris Champs Elysées and Hôtel Camille Paris Gare de Lyon, both part of Hilton’s Tapestry Collection, as well as the Canopy by Hilton Paris Trocadero by French designer Jean-Philippe Nuel. “It has been fantastic to see our expansion in the city beyond the more traditional business hotel environment,” says Larry Traxler, Hilton’s senior vice president of global design, “to the more bespoke lifestyle settings that allow us to celebrate the local neighborhood and Parisian culture through our lens of hospitality.”
Living up to its reputation, a few luxe properties are also set to open this year, including: the Bvlgari Hotel Paris on Avenue George V, designed by local architects Valode & Pistre and Milan firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel; the Soho House Paris in Pigalle; and close to Pont Neuf, the Maisons Cheval Blanc collection’s inaugural, resort-like urban outpost, designed by New York firm Peter Marino Architect.
The Kimpton St Honoré Paris, by local architect Charles Zana, will also land soon, housed in a former luxury department store with rooms done up in an Art Deco 1930s style. Struck by the romance, art, design, and food of the city, Allison Reid, the brand’s chief development officer, says “there was no question that our first property in France would be in Paris. There is absolute magic in the City of Light.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s May 2021 issue.
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