In an ideal Paris, what would the French like to see disappear?
In order to launch the opening this weekend of a new Parisian architectural exhibition the Figaro newspaper conducted a survey amongst its readers in which they were asked “in an ideal Paris, which structure would they like to see disappear”! The results are surprising to say the least.
On top with 35.4% of the vote was the Tour Montparnasse, a 210 metre-tall, 59-floor, black-coloured tower that dominates the southern Parisian skyline. I disagree with the French public here because I quite like this building, and much prefer the view from the top than that offered by the Eiffel Tower (read blog entry)*.
While I do accept that it does somewhat dominate the area and isn’t the most attractive-looking building in the world, it is certainly not as ugly as some of the others on offer, such as the Pompidou Centre* or the Finance Ministry*.
Neither of those however is as horrible as my personal choice: The Finance Ministry’s neighbour out at Bercy, the Palais Omnisport*.
I can safely say that this is one of the most bizarre buildings I’ve ever seen. It is actually, for those who don’t know, a concert arena, and quite a large one at that as it can accommodate between 7,000 to 17,000 people depending on the event.
It was designed by a team of architects (For Neil: Andrault-Parat, Prouvé and Guvan) and its doors were finally opened to the public in 1984. I don’t quite know how else to describe it other than it looks like a giant octagonal molehill.
When I came across this monstrocity on one of my strolls I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. It hardly suits the area, then again I challenge you to name somewhere that it would fit it – perhaps that’s the attraction?
It’s walls are covered in grass which is alive and not even artifical, which raises the question of just how is this maintained? The angle of the grass-covered walls is so steep that no sit-down lawnmower is going to be able to make the climb to the top and at those angles no-one is going to be able to cut it manually without developing severe ankle and knee injuries, if not worse. The solution however is therefore quite novel and ingenious – they use a motorised mower that climbs the mount via pulley systems.
That, and the fact that the venue attracts a lot of big-name acts to Paris (Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Iron Maiden, The Cure, Radiohead, Oasis, Kiss, Green Day to name just a few), is the best I can say about this structure. That would get my vote and considering the selection on offer I am amazed that it only got 6.84% of the vote.
The survey however did not include the Eiffel Tower as one of the options. It would be interesting to see if the Tour Montparnasse would still come out on top if that was the case…
Click here for full results (in french)*
Labels: Comment, Current Affairs
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