A 200 ton crane and a team… of extreme movers. There was a commotion overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday around the TNN. The town hall of Nice had the famous Loch Ness Monstersign Niki de Saint Phalle, who had been enthroned on the forecourt of the building since 2001. Because, yes, it’s official: with this first dismantling, the (controversial) demolition of the theater began. “We are starting with preparatory work”, it was thus specified on the side of the municipality.
Protected and craned with all the necessary precautions, the monumental work of 5 meters by 3 was therefore transported to a place “kept secret for security reasons”, insists the city. It will be restored there before being “relocated in the extension of the Paillon promenade”, which will replace the theater, she also specifies.
Before the asbestos removal and “stripping” stages
Next week is the stable-mobile of Alexandre Calder, who will also be moved. This 3.5 tonne installation belonging to the Mamac collections and which has been there since 1990 will be “loaned to the Matisse museum and installed on its forecourt”, says the municipality. Three trailer trucks will be at work on the night of February 7 to 8 and the city is already announcing “an inaugural sequence” which “will be held soon” in the gardens of the Arène de Cimiez, where the work will remain “during the works duration “.
Works which will also begin inside the theater, now surrounded by site barriers. In particular, there will be a first essential stage of “asbestos removal” in this building inaugurated on December 19, 1989, also announces the town hall. The facade will then be dismantled marble slab by marble slab.
They “will be deposited and stored with the aim of reuse on other buildings or public equipment”, assures the town hall to limit the controversies when the latter had been changed ten years ago for nearly 10 millions of euros.
“A form of megalomaniac madness”
Tuesday at the National Assembly, Eric Ciotti, among the detractors of the project, also called on the Minister of Culture to have it stopped and thus “preserve the elements of Nice’s heritage”. “It is a part of the cultural soul of the city which will be brought down by a form of megalomaniac madness, of personal drift”, attacked the deputy of the Riviera (LR) in delicacy with the mayor Christian Estrosi.
“The state of the building no longer meets technical, functional and artistic needs,” retorted Roselyne Bachelot. It requires heavy work to bring it up to standard [pour un budget compris] between 12 and 18 million euros and no longer allows the deployment of a reception capacity and a cultural offer adapted to the expectations of the population. “An offer that has begun to be deployed in other places in the city.
Launched, the demolition site should last until the end of the year. It will generate “about 13,000 tons” of waste that the community undertakes “to revalorize at 90%” for those that do not present any danger. “In particular, concrete, raw wood and metal” will be “in full”, she says. And to specify: “other waste, such as asbestos, will be evacuated to specific treatment sites. »