TheGrands Projets of François Mitterrand (variants:Grands Travaux[a] orGrands Projets Culturels[b]; officially:Grandes Opérations d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme[c]) was an architectural programme to provide modern monuments inParis, the city of monuments, symbolising France's role in art, politics and the economy at the end of the 20th century.[1][2] The programme was initiated byFrançois Mitterrand, thePresident of France, during his two terms in office (1981-1995). Mitterrand viewed the civic building projects, estimated at the time to cost theGovernment of France 15.7 billionfrancs,[3] both as a revitalisation of the city, as well as contemporary architecture promoted bySocialist Party politics. The scale of the project and its ambitious nature was compared to the major building schemes ofLouis XIV.[4]
This grandiose plan, commencing in 1982,[5] was termed as a "testament to political symbolism and process" launched in the post-World War II France, as an exercise in urban planning.[2] The Grands Projets, described as "eight monumental building projects that in two decades transformed the city skyline",[6] included theLouvre Pyramid,Musée d'Orsay,Parc de la Villette,Arab World Institute,Opéra Bastille,Grande Arche de La Défense,Ministry of the Economy and Finance building, as well as a new campus for theBibliothèque nationale de France, the last and most expensive of the group.[4] The projects did not all begin under Mitterrand—the Musée d'Orsay, La Défense Arch, Arab World Institute and La Villette commenced under his predecessor, PresidentValéry Giscard d'Estaing—but they are attributed to Mitterrand as they radically changed form under him.[7]
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Built between 1981 and 1998, theGrands Projets were constructed of similar materials, in less than two decades, within an urban landscape, and displaying related ideologies.[8] Several of the monuments would display transparency, reflection, and abstract form.[9] Considered to be visible, durable and controversial elements of Mitterrand's years in office, theGrands Travaux (orGrands Projets Culturels) were officially known as theGrandes Operations d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme.[10] François Mitterrand's Socialist government of the 1980s was strongly focused on promoting culture, and it was one of the centerpieces of his presidency.[11] Mitterrand's government allocated more money into art than had ever been seen in the past or since.[11] They were commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.[12]
Mitterrand drew his inspiration for theGrands Projets from PresidentValéry Giscard d'Estaing'sCentre Georges Pompidou of the late 1970s.[13] The Centre Georges Pompidou was the result of anarchitectural design competition in 1971 which selected a team comprisingItalian architectRenzo Piano, theBritish architect coupleRichard Rogers andSu Rogers,Gianfranco Franchini, the British structural engineerEdmund Happold (who would later foundBuro Happold), andIrish structural engineerPeter Rice.[14] Reporting on Rogers' winning thePritzker Prize in 2007,The New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down". The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou "revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city."[15] Mitterrand, seeing the passion that went into the building project and having a will to produce the best possible buildings, pursued hisGrands Projets based on similar architectural competitions which would attract architects from a wide field to develop the city to its architectural potential.
Mitterrand's Grands Projets were realized throughout his presidency:[16]
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In 1977, the government made the decision to renovate theGare d'Orsay (Orsay train station) into theMusée d'Orsay. The Italian architectGae Aulenti oversaw the design of the conversion from 1980 to 1986.[17] The work involved creating 20,000 square metres (220,000 sq ft) of new floorspace on four floors. The new museum was opened by Mitterrand on 1 December 1986,[18] and even though it began before he took office, the work is attributed as one of hisGrands Projets.
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Parc de la Villette, located in northeastern Paris, now includes a science museum and an exhibition hall.[5] A project titled "Parc de la Villette" was launched in 1979 to create a national park with a music centre and a museum devoted to science and technology. The project is spread over an area of 55 acres (22 ha). In an international competition held in 1982 in which 460 teams from 41 countries participated,Bernard Tschumi, aFrench architect ofSwiss origin, was chosen as the architect to build the complex, in March 1983.[19] The objective was to make Parc de la Villette an artistic, cultural and popular centre in Paris. Tschumi designed the park from 1984 to 1987 on the site of the former Parisianabattoirs,[20] which had been built in 1867 byNapoleon III and demolished and relocated in 1974. The park project was successfully completed in stages with the gardens of the Park and the Maison de la Villette getting established in October 1987, the Music and Dance centres in 1990, Music and Concert Halls inaugurated in January 1995 and Music Museum inaugurated in January 2000.[19] It now hosts the annual Open-Air Film Festival.
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Grande Arche de La Défense, the Great Arch ofLa Défense, is a monumental building located at the northern terminus of theGrand Louvre–Place de la Concorde–Champs-Elysées–Arc de Triomphe axis. The name is derived from the La Défense de Paris monument which was built in 1870 as a commemorative building to mark the1870 War. It was planned to be built on a flat plain land across theSeine River from theBois de Boulogne.[2]
A great nationaldesign competition involving some 400 entrants was launched in 1982 under the initiative of Mitterrand to design theGrande Arche de La Défense.Danish architectJohan Otto von Spreckelsen (1929–1987) and Danish engineerErik Reitzel designed the winning entry to be a 20th-century version of theArc de Triomphe: a monument to humanity andhumanitarian ideals rather than military victories. The construction of the monument began in 1985 and Mitterrand personally saw that the largest crane in Europe was brought in to build it.[21] Spreckelsen resigned in July 1986 and ratified the transfer of all his architectural responsibilities to his associate, French architectPaul Andreu. Reitzel continued his work until the monument was completed in 1989. TheArche is almost a perfect cube[22] (width: 108 metres (354 ft), height: 110 metres (360 ft), depth: 112 metres (367 ft)); it has been suggested that the structure looks like afour-dimensionalhypercube (atesseract) projected onto the three-dimensional world. It has aprestressed concrete frame covered withglass andCarraramarble fromItaly and was built by theFrench civil engineering companyBouygues.La Grande Arche was inaugurated on 14 July 1989,[22] with grand military parades that marked the bicentennial of theFrench Revolution and completed the line of monuments that forms theAxe historique running through Paris.[23]
Monumental in scope and public in purpose, the best-known of theGrands Projets is theI. M. Pei redesign and expansion plan of theMusée du Louvre, adding an entrance within theLouvre Pyramid, commissioned by Mitterrand in 1984. Mitterrand insisted on personally inspecting the materials that were used during the construction of the Louvre pyramid, from its glass panels to its steel girders, something which struck the architect as unusual at his degree of interest.[24]
TheArab World Institute is located on Rue des Fossés Saint Bernard and constructed from 1981 to 1987 with a floor space of 181,850 square feet (16,894 m2).Jean Nouvel, together withArchitecture-Studio, won the 1981design competition.[25] The building acts as a buffer zone between theJussieu Campus, in large rationalist blocks, and theSeine. The building houses a museum, library, auditorium, restaurant, and offices. Above the glass-clad storefront, a metallic screen unfolds with moving geometric motifs. The motifs are actually 240 motor-controlled apertures, which open and close every hour. They act asbrise soleil to control the light entering the building. The mechanism creates interior spaces with filtered light — an effect often used inIslamic architecture with its climate-oriented strategies. This building catapulted Nouvel to fame and is one of the cultural reference points of Paris, receiving theAga Khan Award for Architecture.[26] Located on the left bank of the Seine River, in the heart of historic Paris, Arab World Institute, a bold expression of "architecture of glass and metal",[27] where other buildings such as theParis Mosque, other institutions, buildings and places that mark milestones in the exchanges between the Arab world and France, is described as "modern architectural symbol of dialogue between Western culture and the Arab world."[28]
Construction began on theOpéra Bastille at thePlace de la Bastille, in the12th arrondissement in 1984 with the demolition of theGare de la Bastille, which had closed in 1969. The building was designed by a Uruguayan-CanadianCarlos Ott who had won a competition.[29] The building was inaugurated on 13 July 1989, on the 200th anniversary of thestorming of the Bastille, with a gala concert conducted byGeorges Prêtre and featuring singers such asTeresa Berganza andPlácido Domingo. However, it did not see its first opera performance until 17 March 1990, withBerlioz'Les Troyens, directed byPier Luigi Pizzi.[30] It is the largest opera house in Paris with 30 floors (10 floors in the basement), with each floor of 22,000 square metres (240,000 sq ft) area, with corridors to the extent of 45 kilometres (28 mi) in the building. It has backstage areas, workshops, and other essential infrastructure facilities. Its decors are fixed on carriers that run on tracks. These are moved to the stages in a few minutes (using elevators) which facilitates concurrent rotating performances to be held. The main hall contains 2700 seats. It cost 2.8 billionFF to build.[30][31] The railway station and the bridge that existed here have become part of thePromenade plantée, an elevated park that extends over many kilometres to the city limits on the east.[31]
TheMinistry of the Economy and Finance building is located at 1 Boulevard deBercy. It extends down to the Seine and was the result of a 1982 competition.[5] A national competition was held with entrants providing building designs for 225,000 square metres (2,420,000 sq ft) of office space which would constitute a "grand gesture". Height restrictions of the time precluded the construction of a tower on the narrow site that was T-shaped and split in two by the Rue de Bercy[32]Paul Chemetov andBorja Huidobro[33] were the winning designers.[34] The Ministry of Finance and Economy was located in the Richelieu Wing of the Louvre and had to be relocated with the repurpose of the Louvre.[35]
Built in 1988, Building A and Building B bridge over the Rue de Bercy. At 70 metres (230 ft) in length, six levels each span over Quai de la Rapee.[36] The building is nicknamed the "steamboat" because of its extreme length.[34] Aviaduct became a principal building facade with a moat separating the buildings from the boulevard. The Ministère des Finances building received mixed reviews, including a comparison toFascist andStalinist architecture, or amotorway tollgate.[32]
Opened in 1996, theBibliothèque nationale de France was the last and most costly of theGrands Projets built in Paris.[4][37] It consists of four 25-story L-shaped towers representing open books, "arranged at the corners of a giant platform around a sunken garden".[38] After the move of the major collections from theRue de Richelieu, the National Library of France was inaugurated on 15 December 1996 and today contains more than ten million volumes.[39][40] Construction of the library ran into huge cost overruns and technical difficulties related to its high-rise design, so much so that it was then referred to as the "TGB" or "Très Grande Bibliothèque"[4] (i.e. "Very Large Library," a sarcastic allusion to France's successful high-speed rail system, theTGV).[41]
TheJean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, inNouméa,New Caledonia,Melanesia is the only one of theGrands Projets built outside ofMetropolitan France. It was built on the site of the Festival Melanesia 2000, which had occurred 25 years earlier.[42] It was designed by the Italian architect,Renzo Piano.[43]
The Centre International de Conferences was to be the last of theGrands Projets. Designed by Francis Soler, 1990 winner of theGrand Prix national de l'architecture, the centre was not built due to cost overruns of the Bibliothèque nationale.[44]: 7- TheMusée du quai Branly commissioned by presidentJacques Chirac was built instead on the site.
While an initial negative reaction to theGrands Projets viewed it as a continuation of the traditional east/west shift in Paris power, a shift in viewpoint occurred after some time. This resulted after many of the projects were constructed on the working-class eastern side of Paris, and the projects brought a re-emphasis to the Seine.[45]
Considered expensive and controversial,[13]Frommer's said "The majority were considered controversial or even offensive when completed".[46] Mitterrand's projects have been criticised as being empire-building, as well as compromising the "fabric" of Paris.[8] Public taxes had to be raised to finance the project, amounting to a massive€4.6 billion derived from taxes.[47][48]The library was strongly criticised by the French press and has suffered since from "operational problems" and maintenance issues.[44]: 275
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