Archinect - News

The Grand Palais debuts its pre-Olympics makeover in Paris

2024-04-24T11:48:00-04:00

As the start of this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics draws closer in Paris, the first images of the Chatillon Architectes-led restoration of the Grand Palais have been made public.

The initial phase of the four-year project that will be completed in 2025 involved expanding its capacity by 60%, creating a new pedestrian linkage to the Seine and Square Jean Perrin, restoring the balconies of the structure’s nave, and removing ad hoc additions that had slowly accrued since its opening 124 years ago.

Image credit: Laurent Kronental for Chatillon Architectes

New public gardens were created around the building, fostering an enhanced connection between it and other historic areas in the 8th arrondissement: the Champs-Élysées, Boulevard Churchill, and Petit Palais. They include more than 250 plant species, fed by rainwater that has been collected from the roofs — the largest made of glass in Europe — of the Grand Palais. The project's total costs will equal about $500 million USD, and the...

Labor and funding disputes are impelling repair work on the Eiffel Tower

2024-04-18T18:20:00-04:00

To date, only 30% of the tower has been repainted. Adding more than 100 weekly operations to monitor the lead increased annual running costs from €50m to €92m—and may reach a staggering €130m. The unions have also denounced the state of infrastructure, which sees tourists with tickets still queuing for up to three hours.

In February, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (or SETE), which operates the tower announced losses nearing $2 million as a result of the weeklong strike. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has sparred openly with both France’s culture and tourism ministers about the tower’s lacking historical monument status and security situation on the Champ de Mars. The presence of lead paint and the pandemic have also combined to frustrate repair work efforts. The landmark’s last official full paint job, the nineteenth since it opened, was completed in 2010.

BIG unveils mass timber transit hub design for Toulouse

2024-03-26T12:38:00-04:00

BIG has unveiled renderings for its new Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub project in Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city. The 129,000-square-foot building connects the city center to the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi and the Périole neighborhood and will be realized adjacent to the existing Gare Matabiau, which was first built in 1905.

The local studio A+ Architecture is also contributing to the project. The design is for a mass timber structure topped with a rose-colored folded roof replete with photovoltaics and finished in the same tone by a low-carbon concrete floor. Both of these reference the vernacular use of "foraine" brick architecture that is endemic to the southern departmental capital.

Rendering courtesy BIG

Rising exponentially to a height of seven stories, users will access the building on one end and be greeted by shops and a subterranean connector to the metro station underneath. Further on, floors one through six include 71,000 square feet of offices for the region...

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is the 2023 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development laureate

2023-12-14T18:03:00-05:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has today announced Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo as its selection for the 2023 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development, one of the industry’s leading honors for community building and development worldwide.

“La Dauphine,” as she is better known to the press, has spearheaded a renowned program of green investments in the French capital while simultaneously embarking on initiatives aimed at pedestrianization and alleviating urban heat islands, among other key policy drives which have made her into a leading figure in the international movement towards ‘15-minute cities,’ housing justice, and better healthy buildings policies.

“Mayor Hidalgo’s leadership throughout two decades of public service has not only made Paris a healthier, more inclusive, and more livable city today but has also transformed the way other cities think about the possibilities of tomorrow,” Diane Hoskins, ULI Global Chair and the co-CEO of Gensler, said of her accomplishments. “He...

MVRDV begins construction on 'urban oasis' mixed-use concept for Paris

2023-11-29T12:44:00-05:00

MVRDV is behind a newly commenced mixed-use housing tract called La Serre, to be located in the Paris region’s ZAC Léon Blum eco-district at Issy-les-Moulineaux.

The firm’s project announcement details an 18-story development defined by its open facade with a landscaped vertical village provided by landscape architect Alice Tricon.

MVRDV says a total of 390 trees will be planted throughout the structure, helping to defy “traditional housing norms” in order to present a refreshed take on urban dwelling that’s in tune with Paris’ need for biodiversity and constructed using a host of low-carbon materials.

Image: © ENGRAM

The city’s Mayor, André Santini, said: “The project prioritizes nature, placing it at the forefront while the building recedes into the background. This urban oasis is not just a residential space; it's a genuine village square.”

Image: © ENGRAM

An open steel rack superstructure hosts the carefully selected slate of 150 different (mostly native) plant species while provi...

Iconic Parisian cathedral transformed into ‘sensory nighttime exploration’ by multimedia company Moment Factory

2023-10-26T12:53:00-04:00

Montreal-based Moment Factory has completed an immersive multimedia experience inside the iconic Dôme des Invalides in Paris. The project, titled 'AURA Invalides,' consists of a 50-minute experience combining video mapping, lighting, special effects, orchestral music, and sound design to celebrate the building’s architectural and historical heritage.

Image credit: Moment Factory

Conceived in 2019 by cultural operator Cultival in collaboration with Musée de l’Armée, the project seeks to create a “sensory nighttime exploration” in which visitors wander through the Dôme des Invalides and its six chapels guided by light. The experience is divided into three acts, each portraying a distinct facet of the site: “its construction, the memories it harbors, and its power to inspire one and all.”

Image credit: Moment Factory

To project an experience onto the main dome, which measures 295 feet high and 98 feet at its smallest diameter, the t...

Explore images of Moreau Kusunoki's recently completed timber residential tower in Paris

2023-10-20T19:27:00-04:00

A 164-foot-tall timber tower designed by France and Australia-based firm Moreau Kusunoki has officially completed construction. The project features 77 housing units, serveing as a new residential center in the southeastern end of Paris.

The tower is distinct through its grid façade composed of charred and pre-weathered wood. The grid is envisioned as an inhabited wall, which functions as "a filter to keep the surrounding dense urban environment at a distance."

Image © Maris Mezulis

Each residential unit features a private exterior space carved out by the grid façade. The long proportions of this frame were determined by the building’s structural system.

According to the design team, the shape also serves to highlight the "verticality of the building," which allows it to blend in with the surrounding towers. Contrasting this more private, inhabited wall, a transparent public space is located at the base of the structure that opens to the city. Here, an art gallery and restaurant ar...

Christo and Jeanne Claude’s Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped to be recycled for Paris Olympic Games

2023-09-20T11:55:00-04:00

The Mayor of Paris has announced that Christo and Jeanne Claude’s Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped installation is to be recycled for use in the city’s upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. As reported by ARTnews, the effort will be led by the environmental organization Parley for the Oceans.

Under the plans, 269,000 square feet of blue polypropylene fabric and 9,800 feet of red polypropylene rope will be recycled. The recycling of the fabric and rope is in addition to the reuse of the wood and steel substructures which have already been reused by carpentry and steel producers.

Photo: Benjamin Loyseau. Copyright: 2021 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

“The fabric and ropes will be recycled into shade structures, tents or barnums for our next major events in Paris, in particular the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Paris Mayor Anne Hildago said in a statement reported by ARTnews. “This is a very fine example of the art world’s ability to adapt to climate challenges.”

The installation w...

French architect, historian, and academic Jean-Louis Cohen passes away at 74

2023-08-09T12:10:00-04:00

Jean-Louis Cohen, a renowned architectural historian, critic, educator, and curator, has sadly passed away in the Ardennes after suffering an allergic reaction from a bee sting, according to reports published this week in France and the United States.

As the Sheldon H. Solow Chair of Architectural History at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts and former Penelope Visiting Professor in Architectural History at the University of Sydney, Cohen was a beloved figure remembered by many one of his publishers, like Artforum, as being a “knowledgeable interlocutor, author, and professor, and a warm and generous mentor.”

Cohen was born in France in 1949 and began a successful career in academia following the completion of his doctoral studies and a thirteen-year tenure as the director of architectural research for France’s Ministry of Housing. Beginning in 1998, he was influential in the development of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine museum in Paris, which opened to the...

Snøhetta’s Orionis planetarium debuts in France

2023-06-30T14:58:00-04:00

Snøhetta has revealed photos of its just-completed Orionis planetarium and observatory design in the northern French city of Douai.

The project opened in May following a three-and-a-half year construction phase and is defined by a pronounced desire to provoke continuous movement while encouraging users towards a rich multisensory experience on a site adjacent to the city’s Arkéos archaeology museum and Scarpe river.

Image: © Jad Sylla

The 21,527-square-foot planetarium is designed around two offsetting domes connected by a curving envelope that surrounds an elliptical interior courtyard. A landscaped garden path connection to the existing museum completes the exterior program while promoting biodiversity and linking various outdoor spaces together into one accessible whole.

Image: © Jad Sylla

According to the design team, materials used in the paneled curtain wall façade are supposedly inspired by the surrounding landscape and residential structur...

Will the 2024 Olympic flame be installed on the Eiffel Tower?

2023-05-26T15:02:00-04:00

Paris 2024 organisers have been planning to install the Olympic flame on the Eiffel Tower, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. The source added that the flame would not be put at the top of the Eiffel Tower, for technical reasons, and it was not clear whether it would stay on the monument throughout the Games but the combination of two such iconic images would be a dramatic backdrop to the July 26-Aug. 11 event.

The new antenna array on top of the tower is the only thing preventing the flame from alighting (pun) on its freshly-painted pinnacle. The flame traditionally symbolizes the continuity of the ancient into modernity.

Notre-Dame Cathedral, meanwhile, will not have its own makeover readied in time for the 2024 summer games' commencement on July 26, as per the French government's latest update.

Norman Foster previews his Centre Pompidou retrospective for the New York Times

2023-05-11T11:47:00-04:00

I’ve responded to an invitation. Nobody could knock on the door of the Pompidou Center and say, “Hey, I had this idea.” This wasn’t my idea. I’m responding to an invitation, and I’m honored on behalf of so many people to accept it. I’m excited about the future. I think the future is more interesting than the past. I leave the past to other people.

The 1999 Pritzker Prize winner also delved into topics as far ranging as his yearslong dispute with environmental activists, representation of women in architecture, engagements in Saudi Arabia, NEOM, so-called "starchitects," and the world to come. The exhibition features some 130 major projects, covering areas like his love for cars, early collaboration with Buckminster Fuller, and more, all honed in on themes of "sustainability and anticipating the future."

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Curator Frédéric Migayrou breaks down Foster’s six-decade output into seven thematic sections: Nature and Urbanity; Skin and Bones; Vertical City; History and Tradition; Planning and Places; Networks and Mobility; and Future.

The exhibition, titled Norman Foster, is open now and will remain on view until August 7th.

France debuts 'Ball Theater' pavilion installation ahead of the 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-04-27T13:09:00-04:00

France’s pavilion to the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale will feature an immersive interchange of identity and emotion inspired by ballroom dances and human rituals of experience-based social cohesion.

French studio Muoto partnered with scenographers Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna for the design of Ball Theater, which they say ties into curator Lesley Lokko’s thematic look to the future where “architecture is no longer to represent or to be represented as an image.”

Image courtesy of Muoto, Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna

Their project for the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs takes the form of a semi-spherical intervention that’s configurable for different immersive experiences all based around Ball Theater’s usage as a forum for artistic performances and civic inquiry.

Image courtesy of Muoto, Georgi Stanishev and Clémence La Sagna

Special events will be held in its hollowed chamber space, taking...

An MIT-born startup is pitching their idea for green roof additions to the Parisian skyline

2023-04-05T16:45:00-04:00

A new startup born out of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning has developed a green roof concept aimed at improving the quality of life of Parisians while addressing a host of environmental and urban health concerns for the ancient city of 2.1 million.

Roofscapes is the brainchild of Master of Architecture students Eytan Levi, Olivier Faber, and Tim Cousin. The trio all hail from France and met while studying as undergraduates at the EPFL Lausanne. Together, they see the concept as a way to “unlock” the potential of the thousands of pitched roof structures throughout Paris that have for centuries gone unused.

“We knew we wanted to have an impact on the built environment that was different than what a lot of architectural firms were doing,” Faber told MIT News for a recent profile of the venture. “We were thinking about a startup, but mostly we came to MIT because we knew we’d have a lot of agency to grow our skills and competency in adapting the built environment to the cli...

Snøhetta's design for a new French asylum court seeks to offer ‘a place of calm during a time of intense turmoil’

2023-02-17T11:52:00-05:00

Snøhetta has been chosen to design a new National Court of Asylum and Administrative Court in Montreuil, France. The proposed scheme sees the two courts arranged on one site around large green areas, offering what the team calls “a place of calm during what can be a time of intense turmoil.”

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

The court will function as a place where judges hear the cases of individuals who appeal against decisions made by the wing of the French government overseeing refugees and asylum seekers. Hearing thousands of annual cases of people from over 160 countries, the court is considered the final jurisdiction for deciding the future of asylum seekers in France, overseeing residence permit disputes, refusals, and orders to leave the country.

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

Recognizing the positive impact of natural environments on mental and physical health, the scheme seeks to use the natural landscape as an extension of the court, including a 75...

PietriArchitectes designs 15-unit social housing project using cross-laminated timber

2023-01-01T08:00:00-05:00

Paris’ PietriArchitectes has shared images of their new 15-unit social housing development in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers.

Completed towards the end of last year, 36 Ferragus is the key cog in a requalification operation for the city’s center. Currently, about two-thirds of Aubervilliers residents inhabit some form of social housing, and so the development provides relief in what is to some a frequent powder keg for related issues.

Opting for pre-fabricated components and wood as its main building material for the extension project, the studio worked within a site that’s part of the larger Heurtault block of the ZAC Moutier agglomeration to adapt a disused existing early-20th century residential structure and garage.

Image: Hugo Hébrard

Per the architects: "This game of opposition between old and new constitutes the soul of the project. On the street side, the extension is set back from the preserved construction, providing inhabitants with space to access the buildings. A ...

'A symbol of reinvention': Michelin opens renovated new headquarters in France

2022-12-20T14:43:00-05:00

A recently-inaugurated renovation project for Michelin’s corporate headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France, has given a new identity to the 130-year-old legacy brand that was “in need of a new setting to project into the future,” according to President Florent Menegaux.

The project was completed last year as a collaboration between the French studios Encore Heureux Architectes, Construire, and Base. It included adding a two-story extension and wood canopy entrance to the existing factory building at Place des Carmes which was acquired by the company in the early 2000s. An all-glass greenhouse that was enacted at the site soon after became the focal point of the project after initial plans called for its demolition.

Image: Nicolas Trouillard

As a “symbol of reinvention,” the new facades and remade greenhouse are combined with other renovated structures in order to create a more welcoming buffer between the site’s public and private spaces. Its design was a pr...

Notre Dame's 'shocking' interior cleaning is sparking a debate about methods used in architectural restoration

2022-11-22T14:19:00-05:00

The current cleaning phase involves the application of a latex paste to the interior stonework. After a few days, the latex can be peeled off, bringing with it accumulated dust and dirt. Speaking to The Times in September Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of French national historic monuments, said that once completed the cathedral would be “luminous”.

The peel-off material is similar to the Arte Mundit product that was used controversially in a restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London 20 years ago, although The Art Newspaper reported it does not include the EDTA or harmful ammonia that is often mixed in with latex as a stabilizer.

Image: David Bordes, via Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris/Facebook

The “shock” described by the restoration's leader, French Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin, that comes after its removal could prove too much for hardcore originalists, combing with equally derided LED lighting and other new age interior features designed by Father Gilles Drouin to create a Disney-like atmosphere they claim is a distortion of the 850-year-old relic and the Catholic tradition.

Image: David Bordes, via Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris/Facebook

“The really important questions in restoration are not, in essence, technical, they are aesthetic and historic and artistic,” ArtWatch UK director Michael Daly told The Times. “The quest...

France now requires all large parking lots to be covered by solar panels

2022-11-11T08:43:00-05:00

In France, solar just got a huge boost from new legislation approved through the Senate this week that requires all parking lots with spaces for at least 80 vehicles – both existing and new – be covered by solar panels.

Starting on July 1, 2023, parking lots that have between 80 and 400 spaces will have five years to comply with the new measures. Those with more than 400 spaces will need to comply within three years, with at least half of the surface area of the parking lot needing to be covered in solar panels. Parking lots that accommodate trucks carrying heavy goods or parking areas in historic or protected areas are exempt from the measures.

This move is part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to multiply the amount of solar energy produced in France by 10. The initiative also aims to double the power from land-based wind farms. As reported by electrek, the government claims this plan could generate up to 11 gigawatts, which can power millions of homes.

MVRDV completes Gaîté Montparnasse block transformation in the heart of Paris

2022-11-08T16:42:00-05:00

MVRDV has shared details on its just-completed Gaîté Montparnasse block renovation in the French capital.

The project transformed Pierre Dufau’s once iconic 1974 Ilôt Vandamme design into a more welcoming mixed-use site just south of the Tour Montparnasse facing Avenue du Maine.

“This piece of the city was like an island of ‘70s nostalgia — a tower with no visible entrance, and a plinth where you could get lost between the pedestrian slabs and automobile boulevards,” MVRDV founder Winy Maas explained. “The first step in the design was a study to fragment the block and to make sustainable density — adding new programs such as homes and revealing hidden ones like the library. It created a kind of explosion of buildings that combines large and small scale, existing and new programs, where everything mixes and opens up to the city with lobbies and windows of varying scales like so many addresses.”

Image: Ossip van Duivenbode courtesy MVRDV

By splitting the massing using a tonal glazed cl...

3XN debuts an artistic mixed-use design for Paris’ stolid La Défense district

2022-10-28T15:38:00-04:00

3XN has officially debuted its first-ever French design just west of Paris’ La Défense business district in Nanterre.

Featuring a program that combines a traditional office and hotel accommodation through two separate volumes, joined along an east-west axis, that offer views of La Défense’s adjacent towers and Johan Otto von Spreckelsen’s monumental Grande Arche.

“As the first shape you encounter when arriving from La Défense, this building had to be eye-catching and dynamic,” 3XN Founding Partner Kim Herforth Nielsen explains. “The faceted façade and shifting volumes make it a standout in the busy district. The concept — two distinct but complementary designs — is unique in the area.”

Photo: Jared Chulski, courtesy 3XN.

The scheme makes use of semi-reflective aluminum panel cladding to distinguish the Hôtel OKKO as one unbroken massing, while its partner InDéfense office structure splits into smaller forms, extruding to “open the long and narrow si...

MVRDV completes ‘geological’ residential complex in Rennes, France

2022-10-21T13:35:00-04:00

MVRDV has completed work on Ascension Paysagère, a residential complex in Rennes, France which takes inspiration from “geological formations.” Designed in collaboration with co-architects ALL, the project delivers 138 homes within the 12-story, 113,000-square-foot scheme, including 37 social housing units and 42 affordable housing units.

Located at the meeting point of two rivers, the development comprises two curving buildings with gradually receding slopes. A mixture of matte and glossy ceramic panels clad the complex in five “stratified” tones of gray, with dark matte tiles concentrated near the ground and lighter, glossier tiles to the upper levels. This stratified arrangement continues at night, with lighting integrated in the ceramic panels becoming more prevalent as the buildings rise.

The two buildings step up towards the center of the site to form three peaks. Th...

AMO reveals unique retail spaces for Jacquemus' Paris and London expansions

2022-10-05T12:57:00-04:00

A splashy collaboration between AMO (the research arm of OMA) and the French fashion house Jacquemus is making the scene in Paris and London this season thanks to the dynamic duo of OMA partner Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri.

Located inside the iconic Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette Haussmann and the equally posh London’s Selfridges and Harvey Nichols outfitters, the stores first premiered in July and were inspired by a deep dive into the brand’s origins, according to the design team.

Photograph by Benoit Florençon, Courtesy of AMO

“We wanted to capture the atmosphere of Provence through the materiality of the spaces,” van Loon says. “[That] led us to approach the design in a different way altogether. Instead of working with form and deciding on the materials afterwards, we chose the materials at the outset and let them guide the shape of each space.”

Photograph by Benoit Florençon, Courtesy of AMO

Photograph by Benoit F...

France’s Culture Ministry says Notre-Dame is still on track to reopen in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics

2022-08-02T15:57:00-04:00

French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to reopen Notre-Dame in time for Paris’ turn as host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games still appears to be on track after France’s Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak said her office was “quite confident” in the reconstruction’s progress.

Abdul-Malak was on hand for a site inspection over the weekend alongside Phillipe Villeneuve, the chief architect of the country’s cultural monuments. The two were in Paris to inspect the recently-completed clean-up of the 859-year-old structure’s interior worship spaces, which they say represents a turning point towards the overall project’s accelerated completion.

The question is how much of the heavily-damaged cathedral will be restored and reopened to the public in time for the 2024 date set by Abdul-Malak. The controversial interior segment of the second phase of reconstruction finally began in September after lockdown-related delays and is to be followed by the replica spire’s reinstallati...

Renée Gailhoustet takes home the 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Prize

2022-05-31T12:42:00-04:00

Renée Gailhoustet has been named the winner of this year’s Royal Academy of Arts Architecture Prize in recognition of her work surrounding urban planning and social housing in her native country of France.

The jury commended Gailhoustet for her “strong social commitment that brings together generosity, beauty, ecology, and inclusivity.” The 92-year-old’s breadth of significant works spans from early projects such as the master plan of Ivry-sur-Seine, which includes the Cité Spinoza housing complex completed in 1972, to the La Maladrerie development in Aubervilliers, and, finally, the Le Liégat, where the architect has resided since its completion in 1977.

“By using innovative geometries and mixing uses in her buildings, Gailhoustet has created a compelling argument for blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, and, collective and individual,” part of the jury statement explains.

Within the long and storied history of social housing i...

David Chipperfield's reinvented Morland Mixité Capitale is now complete in Paris

2022-05-18T14:14:00-04:00

David Chipperfield Architects is celebrating the recent completion of their Morland Mixité Capitale project in Paris following six years of construction on a ‘Reinventing Paris’ scheme first announced by developer Emerige in 2016.

The firm’s Berlin office, in collaboration with CALQ, had been hard at work restoring and expanding the former Préfecture de Paris building into a new public attraction near Canal Saint-Martin.

Per the architects: “Two new building volumes facing the boulevard and the River Seine, which mediate between the scale of the existing and neighbouring buildings, contribute to the repair of the city. The volumes are raised above the ground to create a new public axis that provides a passage from the boulevard to the River Seine. Load-bearing, vaulted arcades characterize this passage at ground floor level and act as a counterpart to the stringent column grid of the existing ensemble. The complex accommodates a wide spectrum ...

One of Oscar Niemeyer's last drawings to be realized at Château La Coste in France

2022-04-07T19:24:00-04:00

France’s Château La Coste will make history this summer with the realization of one of Oscar Niemeyer’s last architectural drawings.

Set idyllically amongst the Château’s 500-acre estate in one of the country’s most significant wine regions, the latest in a series of pavilions will play host to a 1,250-square-foot art gallery and 80-seat cylindrical auditorium.

The project was initiated in 2010 and took more than a year to perfect, resulting in a striking final gift to his adopted home and its age-old craft, which Niemeyer considered a sacred and essential human activity.

Visitors will enter the pavilion’s glass facade across from a shallow reflecting pool that provides a perfect frame for the structure’s signature curved form and surrounding Provencial terroir. Niemeyer worked alongside founder Paddy McKillen and his grandson-in-law, architect Jair Valera, to select the site and ...

Archaeologists have uncovered a 14th-century sarcophagus underneath Notre Dame Cathedral

2022-03-23T08:30:00-04:00

A pre-construction archaeology dig meant to prepare a critical segment of the reconstructed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has led to the discovery of a lead sarcophagus and several small tombs according to an announcement from the French Ministry of Culture.

The discovery was unearthed directly beneath the 859-year-old cathedral’s transept floor and is thought to contain the remains of a key religious figure dating to the 14th century, which is around the time when Notre Dame’s apse was constructed.

The findings were of “remarkable scientific quality” according to France’s culture minister Roselyne Bachelot. Workers who made the discovery were preparing to install scaffolding at the location for the soon-to-begin historically-accurate re-creation of the church’s spire, which has been promised by the Macron government to be completed in time for the 2024 Olympics.

Several tombs and a leaden sarcophagus l...

The Eiffel Tower has grown a bit taller for the second time this century

2022-03-16T13:52:00-04:00

The Eiffel Tower grew by six meters (nearly 20 feet) on Tuesday after engineers hoisted a new communications antenna at the very top of France’s most iconic landmark. With the new antenna, the Eiffel Tower grew from 324 meters (1,063 feet) tall to 330 meters (1,083 feet).

The Iron Lady’s first such extension was installed in 1957 and followed in 2000 by the installation of a UHF display, which brought the official height to the just-surmounted total of 324 meters (1,063 feet). Tuesday’s addition of the new DAB+ antenna now brings the structure even further away from its original height of 312 meters (1,023 feet) at construction.

A helicopter was used to transport the antenna to the technicians in charge of installing it at a height of 324m A rare and spectacular technical feat! #tourEiffel330M @TDFgroupe pic.twitter.com/9qytcpAeiT
— La tour Eiffel (@LaTourEiffel) March 15, 2022

Owing to its height, Gustave Eiffel’s iconic structure has long served Paris and the Île-de-France region as a transmitting beacon beginning with its first broadcast in 1898. The radio itself is said to have in part saved the tower from its original 20-year hard cap, gaining a 70-year extension in 1910 thanks to its inventor's self-financed adaptation of then-new TSF technol...

Paris' first public transit gondola moves forward

2022-02-09T16:59:00-05:00

By 2025, commuters near the Paris suburb of Creteil should have a new way to get to work: the French capital’s first-ever public transit gondola. The new aerial tramway, which cleared its pre-construction feasibility studies this week, will be called Cable A, and will link several outlying but populous neighborhoods in Paris’ southeastern suburbs to the terminus of Metro line 8.

Cable A will travel a distance of 2.8 miles with five stations along its route. It was first proposed in 2008 as a cheaper and more practical alternative to conventional transit lines, which would require extensive engineering at the site. The gondola only needs space for the pillars that support the cables, which would keep the project’s cost at $149 million. In addition, because it’s powered by electricity, it won’t immediately contribute to local air pollution or emissions.

Despite some pushback from locals concerned about compromised privacy due to the presence of aerial transport, Bloomberg CityLab notes that this could be a final-mile solution that makes traditional transit more accessible. And, Cable A isn’t alone. It is reported that another five aerial tram plans are currently being considered for the Greater Paris Region.