The New Paris Skyline?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 11th 2008 at 3:06PM

The skyline of Paris has remained relatively unchanged for the last 18 years but the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, is seeking to change that and has presented a bold new plan to the city council. It's currently against regulations to build higher than 37 meters (121.4 feet) in the capital and there hasn't been a new skyscraper built in 18 years. But Delanoë believes that new buildings could help ease the city's housing shortage. Even though nearly two-thirds of Parisians are said to be against relaxing the building rules, the mayor said that a public official's responsibility is to act in the best interest of the public rather than just pay attention to polls.

The council has voted in favor of studying the plan and the citizens will be allowed to weigh in at a conference next year. The plans include a 200 metre pyramidal tower next to the Porte de Versailles with a four-star hotel but other planned residential projects are in the 50 meter range. Advocates say this type of architecture is necessary in order for Paris to compete with other "global cities" like London, Tokyo and New York. Critics say that Paris is beautiful as is and that dramatic new architecture would damage the city's famous charm. Check out the potential new Paris in the gallery below.

Gallery: The New Paris Skyline?

Tags: architecture, city of lights, design, paris, urban planning, UrbanPlanning

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

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pinkandgeek Jul 12th 2008 10:05AM

I think you got a typo, "the mayor said that a pubic official's responsibility" unless they do have officials that regulate the pubic areas of the French ;-)