Makeover for the Concorde. Transformed for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Place de la Concorde will host the BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and 3×3 basketball events from July 26. Today semi-pedestrian, it should remain so after the Games. Yes but in what form?
This is the question that the commission specially created for the occasion will have to answer. This Wednesday, April 3, took place at the Théâtre de la Concorde, the first meeting of a team invited at the initiative of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
Heritage headliners
In total, there are 17 personalities who must decide on the new face of this emblematic place in Paris, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
“I am very happy to open this work on Place de la Concorde,” explained Anne Hidalgo before the meeting. A place that she wishes to “maintain” and “why not transform”, she added, before specifying that this will have to be done with “delicacy” and “all the sense of History and heritage to share.”
No line drawn but imperatives
In addition to the obelisk and the fountains to be preserved, the commission, chaired by the former Minister of Culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon, will have the mission of aligning the project with the renovation of the Champs-Elysées Gardens and the Tuileries Gardens, two vegetated spaces which border on either side this highly mineralized place.
If she clarified that she did not have “any particular idea on how and what we will achieve”, since “that is the whole meaning of this brain juice that is the commission”, the councilor still listed some imperatives.
The first is to “respond to the climate challenge of the 21st century”. The second is to perpetuate the reduction in car space experienced since the Rugby World Cup in September 2023 according to Anne Hidalgo: “The Police Prefecture also considers that this improves the flow of traffic. We want places which are not roundabouts but which allow strolling, walking and approaching the works. »
Respect heritage
The mayor of Paris hopes to be able to present the broad outlines of a project at the end of the Olympic Games and thus launch the markets for, she hopes, a realization before the end of her mandate.
To achieve this, the commission has recruited prestigious personalities including Stéphane Bern, “Monsieur Patrimoine”, but also two former Ministers of Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon and Audrey Azoulay, among others.
“When a place is called the Place de la Concorde, it is really harmony that we will seek despite the diversity of opinions that can be applied on how to improve the situation,” hopes Jean-Jacques Aillagon, president of the Commission.
“We will put all the necessary resources into this historic place”
“I welcome the desire of the mayor of Paris to be driven by a spirit of harmony and consensus to try to find together how we can improve things while respecting heritage,” added Stéphane Bern. “We will put all the necessary resources into this historic place,” concluded Anne Hidalgo.
The commission, which will meet four times until June, must make an initial presentation of its project before June 15. To give a little helping hand, Parisians will also be able to contribute to the consultation on the city’s website.