Architecture

Champs-Élysées redesign turns Paris streets from gray to green

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Work on the project is not expected to begin in earnest until after Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. Completion is slated for 2030
PCA-Stream
The existing Champs-Élysées gardens will be re-landscaped, with new trees and plants added
PCA-Stream
Work on the project is not expected to begin in earnest until after Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. Completion is slated for 2030
PCA-Stream
According to PCA-Stream, only 5 percent of visitors to the Champs-Élysées are actually Parisians, with the rest tourists. The firm hopes to attract locals back with its new scheme
PCA-Stream
The scheme aims to reduce vehicle access in favor of maximizing pedestrian-safe areas
PCA-Stream
The existing Champs-Élysées gardens will be re-landscaped as part of the project
PCA-Stream
The scheme is part of a wider development push in the area that also includes a new landscaping project around the Eiffel Tower area
PCA-Stream
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Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said "Oui" to a plan to transform the French capital's famous Champs-Élysées and nearby areas. The project, headed by PCA-Stream, will involve the planting of thousands of plants and trees, turning the city streets from gray to green.

According to PCA-Stream, only 5 percent of visitors to the Champs-Élysées are actually Parisians making use of it in any meaningful way. The firm hopes to tempt locals back with an ambitious scheme that involves the planting of trees to improve the local air quality in the traffic-heavy site, as well as the expansion of pedestrian-safe areas and the reduction of traffic lanes and car parking spaces. Bicycle paths will be added, temporary stalls and kiosks installed for events, and there will be children's playgrounds, too. There will also be some effort paid to the project's sustainability.

"Nature can partially replace costly and polluting infrastructure," says the firm. "For instance, recovering soil permeability wherever possible, creating planted 'lounges,' bioswales, and buffer strips to increase water infiltration and the construction of retention basins where the former ditches of Place de la Concorde lay will filter pollutants and harvest rainwater. The re‐designed living ecosystem of the Champs‐Élysées thus acts as an air purifier, absorbing CO2, minimizing dust, increasing rainwater infiltration, cooling the air via evapotranspiration, increasing the amount of shade and restoring wildlife habitat to increase urban biodiversity."

According to PCA-Stream, only 5 percent of visitors to the Champs-Élysées are actually Parisians, with the rest tourists. The firm hopes to attract locals back with its new scheme
PCA-Stream

Additionally, the famous Place de l’Étoile roundabout/traffic circle will have its car lanes reduced from 11 to a still-considerable seven, and the existing Champs-Élysées gardens will be re-landscaped. The Place de la Concorde will also be transformed with trees, terraced gardens and a pool added.

It's early days yet however, and work is not expected to begin in earnest until after Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. Completion is slated for 2030, with The Guardian reporting the budget at €250 million (roughly US$305 million). The project is also part of a wider development push that includes a landscaping project around the Eiffel Tower area.

Source: PCA-Stream

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4 comments
Username
If you talk about changes you have to show the before pictures.
Robin
You probably don't know Anne Hidalgo, Paris Mayor. There is a huge difference between the concept and the reality. Paris is now a disaster, sorry guys
McDesign
The camping homeless will love it, but denude and destroy the trees. Cousins of friends that grew up in Compton (LA) reflexively will never walk under trees, even decades later here in Atlanta, because folks might drop down. The Paris of even a generation ago, when I traveled there monthly, is gone.
ljaques
Well, sure. Just take out 5 of the 6 lanes of traffic and plant trees there. OR, they could spend the $305 million on out-of-city communal homes for the million refugees they let in. Here is the reality today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b_rmUHUg4