Grande Arche of Paris in a sorry state

It was opened 25 years ago amid much pomp and ceremony on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, but Margaret Thatcher no doubt remembered it more as the place where she got stuck in the toilets.

Today, the gigantic Grande Arche on the outskirts of Paris is in a sorry state. The prized Carrara marble covering parts of the structure is weathered, businesses snub its cramped office space and the entire building is now closed to the public for security reasons.

This 20th-century version of the French capital's Arc de Triomphe - a glass-and-marble cube so big it could house Notre Dame Cathedral - stands in the business district of La Defense outside Paris at the end of a long, straight line that begins at the Louvre museum and takes in the Champs-Elysees. It was to be a monument to humanity and humanitarian ideals rather than one dedicated to military victories.

Danish architect Johan Otto Von Spreckelsen conceived the design, but an illness forced him to hand over the reins in 1986 to France's Paul Andreu.

The structure was inaugurated on July 14, 1989, with a three-day G7 summit attended by top leaders from around the world including Thatcher.

Britain's then-prime minister "no doubt long remembered her visit", said an official present on that day who asked to remain anonymous.

"A door handle broke and she got stuck in the toilets. Her bodyguards were forced to break down the door."'

A little hard-going'

Today the Grande Arche is deteriorating.

The base of the cube's north face has been cordoned off for safety reasons, and on the south side, some of the marble has been replaced by granite, a more weather-resistant material.

The rooftop offers an unrivaled view of the Champs-Elysees, Concorde Square and the Tuileries Garden that leads on to the Louvre but has been closed to the public since April 2010 because of an elevator incident.

The ecology and housing ministries, based in the south face of the Grande Arche, have narrow corridors with no natural light and cramped offices with low ceilings.

The place is "a little hard-going", Andreu acknowledged.

"We had big restrictions: to erect a 'modern Arc de Triomphe' in line with the historical axis that crosses Paris from east to west," he said, referring to the straight line stretching from the Louvre to the Grande Arche. "The exterior was favored over the interior."

Since October, both ministries have undertaken big renovations that will cost nearly 200 million euros ($270 million) over two years and will improve insulation, optimize space and replace all the marble.

But the future of the north face, where much of the office space is empty, is more uncertain.

Real estate group Jones Lang LaSalle has been forced to reduce the rent, charging 320 euros per square meter annually compared with an average of 400 euros in the rest of the district.

Reopening the rooftop, which was once visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year, is also an option, though nothing has been done so far.

"But the idea of reopening has never left us," said Michel-Regis Talon, a spokesman for the ministries.

(China Daily 08/06/2014 page10)