Front de Seine: a mistake of the 70's

Today, I 'll take you to the Front de Seine area, located in the 15th district of Paris. This place is quite noticeable in Paris because of its numerous 100m mid rise buildings. It had been built in the 70's using the slab architecture. The idea is to separate pedestrian from vehicules thanks to a huge concrete slab. Thus, folks can enjoy a non vehicle area on the slab, while vehicles run on streets under the slab. Even if the idea sounded great, it turned out to be a disaster. Actually, the concrete slab created a cold and hostile environment, where no one really want to stick around. Plus, the 70's building are really, really nasty. Let's find what it is like.

Here is a global view of the place:

Let's zoom in. Hey ? What do I see there ? The statue of Liberty ? Actually, it is a small version of the real one !

Another general view:

Here is one of my favorite bulding:

Some nice close-ups:

Now, I wanna show you what is a 70's concrete slab, and why it is soooo ugly.

Ohhh maannn, I would not like to be there past midnight...

So now, let's it the bottom with this "war zone like" picture. Actually, they are demolishing a old mall to build a newer, beautiful one.

Okay, I guess that now you get the picture, so I'll continue with a rosier picture of Paris! I sneaked in a fire escape stair of a 20 floor building, and I took those pictures. On this first one, you can notice the highest building in Paris, the Montparnasse tower, 210 m.

The Eglise des Invalides:

The Basilique du Sacré Coeur, in the Montmartre area:

And to wrap it up, a close up depicting the typical parisian buildings:

See ya soon ! Julien

Welcome y'all !

Welcome y'all to my new blog about the architecture of Paris and its close suburbs !

I am both an architecture and a photography enthusiast, and I love my city, Paris. That is why I would like to present Paris through architecture pics. I welcome every comments, so do not hesitate. Furthermore I am interested in all type of architecture, so feel free to post links to other architecture websites.

For my first post, I'll take you to Bercy, my neighborhood in the 12th (southeast Paris) ,and a little bit in the 13th. t's not the most typical location of Paris, so you may be surprised !

The ministry of Finance, a huge set of buildings whose main component is a 360 meters long bar.

The district is also packed with a lot of midrise building

Now let' walk over the seine river and go to the François Mitterand (A France former president) national library. This place is a tribute to its native country, Les Landes, southeast of France. The library is made up of 4 open book - shaped buildings, laid on a wood platform, with a rectangular pine forest right in the center.

That's all for now. Next time I'll introduce you to the traditional Paris : you'll get to know the first district, and in particular the musée du Louvre.

See ya ! Julien