In The Robin Report, Mark Faithfull describes how a new master plan will transform Paris’s famous Champs-Elysées. He writes:
However, with more optimistic news, Paris authorities have won approval to transform the famous Champs-Elysées into what Mayor Anne Hidalgo describes as an “extraordinary garden.” The ambitious renovation plans will likely cost over $250 million and by 2030 will transform a 1.2-mile stretch from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe into a green corridor, designed by French architectural firm PCA-Stream.
The plans include widening sidewalks, adding greenery-lined restaurant terraces, halving traffic volumes by redirecting some vehicles through a new tunnel, plus greening the huge roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe, the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées, with more space for pedestrians.
The first phase will be completed in time for the 2024 Olympics and will take in the area around the Place de la Concorde, with the rest completed within six years. Those plans will undoubtedly create short-term disruption but the long-heralded plans (first floated in 2018) are huge in their scope and reflect the major shift in urban planning in Europe from cars to people. The Parisians certainly put London’s modest adjustments in perspective.
Read more here.
