The Eiffel Tower Esplanade ©MIR
Since 2014, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has made it her mission to make Paris as green as possible. To reach this goal, she has introduced the city to a range of eco-friendly initiatives, from monthly “car-free” days to permits for private urban gardens. Now, one of her most monumental dreams is coming true, as British architecture studio Gustafson Porter + Bowman has won the opportunity to turn the site of the Eiffel Tower into a “21st-century destination for one of Paris’ largest parks.”
Called OnE, Gustafson Porter + Bowman's plan will transform the space surrounding the tower into an open-plan oasis. Embracing the fact that the Eiffel Tower stands on an axis connecting several important points—including the the Pont d’Iéna Bridge, the Place du Trocadéro, the Champ de Mars, and the Palais de Chaillot, among others—the design is driven by the idea of a unified Paris.
“OnE Site is the unification of all these spaces, as in a landscape painting where multiple colors, different textures combine to form a single image, a single mind and a sole composition,” the studio says in a press note. “A complex urban site must reveal unity, continuity, and diversity.” To realize this vision, OnE will comprise several different interlocking landscapes with one thing in common: a focus on going green.
The Iéna Bridge, for example, will be “reincarnated as a green promenade,” while plants and pedestrians will reclaim the concrete and congested Trocadéro. In each case, Gustafson Porter + Bowman are confident that a new landscape will make a trip to the Eiffel Tower an experience rich in “pleasure and contemplation.”
The first stage of the project is set to be completed in 2023—just in time for Paris' highly anticipated 2024 Olympic Games.
British architecture studio Gustafson Porter + Bowman has won the opportunity to redesign the site surrounding the Eiffel Tower.
© GP+B – Site Tour Eiffel – Fontaine du Trocadéro
© GP+B – Site Tour Eiffel – Vue aérienne
The ambitious plan will turn the area into one of the largest parks in Paris.
Vision 2030 masterplan © GP+B
It will also comprise several different “interlocking landscapes” that represent the idea of a unified Paris.
The Pont d’Iéna Bridge regreened as a planted promenade ©MIR
The amphitheatre at the Place du Trocadéro ©MIR
Spectacular view from the Varsovie Fountains ©MIR
