Who remembers that Paris had been a candidate for the organization of the 1992 Olympics? And yet, if this candidacy had succeeded, there would have been an Olympic village instead of the François-Mitterrand library. Better still, if London had not won on July 6, 2005 by four votes ahead of Paris for the 2012 Games, the High Court (TGI), now located at Porte de Clichy, would very likely have seen the day in the South Tolbiac area. “This project initiated by the State was only abandoned in April 2009 with the decision to build the new TGI in the Batignolles district, after the failure of Paris’s candidacy”, indicates the Regional Chamber accounts in its report on the ZAC Paris-Rive gauche of February 2022.
The Paris candidacies of 1992, 2008 and 2012 all failed, but each time the face of the capital was transformed. “From the moment we make phosphorus with very strong ambitions, there is always something left”, estimates Claire Peuvergne who directs the Regional Sports Development Institute (IRDS). “Each time, Paris has taken advantage of these applications”, supports Patricia Pelloux, deputy director of Apur (Parisian urban planning workshop) and who worked on the files of 2008, 2012 and 2024.
Enjoy the magic of France 98
Each application seeks to promote a specific territory. That of 1992, which is a continuation of that of the Universal Exhibition of 1989, focuses on Paris left bank, a sector which is not then urbanized. “This has accelerated the reflection on this area and its land development”, explains Patricia Pelloux. Large unrealized sports facilities will become cultural with the BNF.
The 2008 candidacy was made in the wake of the victory at the 1998 World Cup. urban planner at the Paris Region Institute. This is why the site of the Saint-Denis plain is chosen to house the future Olympic village, to the detriment of the Batignolles wasteland. But the “project did not have much consistency”, in the words of the town planner and Paris failed once again. On the other hand, “we had imagined the installation of sports equipment along MacDonald Boulevard which would have become a sports boulevard”, adds Paul Lecroart. Obviously, that did not happen, but “it accelerated urban development in the North-East of Paris”, with in particular the development of the Rosa-Parks district, abounds Patricia Pelloux.
Stronger demands
A few years later, the Batignolles site was chosen to set up the Olympic village there for the 2012 Olympic Games, halfway between the two other Olympic sites, the Saint-Denis plain and the Bois de Boulogne. For Patricia Pelloux and Apur who carried the project since the 2008 attempt, it’s “an opportunity to reveal a territory and carry out a reflection on a large scale”. In fact, because of the Olympic Games, “the requirements are much higher than for a classic ZAC, especially on the environmental aspect with, for example, photovoltaics on the roofs of buildings or pneumatic waste collection”.
“We designed a car-free neighborhood around a park [Martin-Luther-King], this is the first time that we have done this in this order in Ile-de-France, ”welcomes Paul Lecroart. Above all, the Olympic candidacy made it possible to accelerate the process of land transfer by the SNCF to build this Olympic village which will therefore become by force of failure, the eco-district of Batignolles, since then regularly shown as an example. Moreover recalls, the deputy director of Apur, “we had built this file so that the new district is done whatever happens”.
In the initial project, the southern part was therefore intended for the Olympic village and the northern part for temporary installations, in particular transport infrastructure for the athletes. Due to the failure, this sector was without specific assignment. Not for a long time. “The TGI project was no longer progressing in Tolbiac, but a space opened up at Porte de Clichy and that’s where it was built,” says Claire Peuvergne.
The return of Seine-Saint-Denis
Beyond the Batignolles, the 2012 bid enabled the construction of sports facilities that were lacking in the Paris region. “At the time, we committed to building them even if we lost,” recalls the director of the IRDS. This is how we built the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome and the Olympic nautical stadium in Vaires-sur-Marne. On the other hand, the third major facility, the Olympic aquatic center will only see the light of day with the 2024 bid.
With this one, it is moreover the return to the center of attention of the Saint-Denis plain. “It is consistent with a Grand Paris candidacy and it establishes a new geography in connection with the Grand Paris Express,” says Patricia Pelloux. “The watchword was to open up Seine-Saint-Denis, so that this high-potential department could benefit from the Olympic Games effect”, explains Armand de Rendinger, international consultant in the field of Olympism and involved in the candidacy. of 2012.
And paradoxically, the 2024 candidacy could well leave less traces than its predecessors. ” The 2020 diary of the IOC provides that the concept of the Games must be aligned with the major urban planning schemes”, specifies Claire Peuvergne. Consequently, it is recommended to rely on existing sites and in the end the aquatic center is, with the Bourget climbing wall, the only sports equipment that will be built in a sustainable way. On the other hand, the Olympic village located on Ile-Saint-Denis should make it possible to revitalize the sector. But beware, “after the Olympics, it’s often the valley of despair, warns Armand de Rendinger, citing the bad examples of Rio and Athens. After the party, you have to know what you’re doing. »