After more than a decade of planning, the ambitious Clichy Batignolles project is rising in northwest Paris. The development is an attempt to stay competitive in the global marketplace, without compromising the city's world-renowned charms.
Clichy Batignolles is just one component in "an ambitious program of large-scale, mixed-use developments on the periphery [of Paris]," writes Peter Sigal. "The goals are twofold: creating an engine for economic growth while preserving the Belle Époque Paris beloved by tens of millions of tourists; and integrating the prosperous city with struggling inner-ring suburbs, or banlieues."
"By the numbers, the 133-acre project is impressive for any city: 12,700 projected jobs; 3,400 housing units, subsidized and market-rate; 1.5 million square feet of office space; 410,000 square feet of public facilities, including schools; 334,000 square feet of shops and services — and 90 courtrooms and offices to accommodate some 8,000 people a day in the 524-foot-tall courthouse," Sigal explains.
"But Paris being Paris, the prospect of high-rise offices, glossy apartment blocks and a large influx of low-income housing has not been received with great enthusiasm.
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