The start of the rehabilitation work is officially launched. After several years of studies, diagnosis and preparatory work, it is the beginning of major maneuvers in the old Vial high school, in the city center of Nantes, closed since 2014. The Loire-Atlantique departmental council has indeed decided that this historic building (1896), located a stone’s throw from Boulevard Guist’hau, would become a public college by 2023. An information meeting on this € 19.7 million project is taking place on Tuesday evening, for residents.
“Deal with the existing”
To accommodate some 780 students (and in particular those from Guist’hau and Jules-Verne colleges), the building will have to gain in functionality, whether in terms of access, acoustic comfort, organization of premises but also energy performance. Thus, a new access imagined from the rue du 14-Juillet will open onto a wide corridor which will lead the pupils to an enlarged courtyard in light concrete, and “wooded areas” where remarkable trees will be seen, visible from large bay windows.
But Cobalt Architects teams will also have to “deal with the existing”. “The tufa facades and slate roofs will be redone identically, while the buildings from the 50s, 60s and 80s will be mainly treated with zinc cladding in vertical installation, in bricks and plaster,” specifies the departmental council.
Another big project is due to start soon in the Nantes conurbation. The Ernest-Renan college in Saint-Herblain will be rebuilt near Boulevard Allende, for delivery scheduled for 2024.