The Little-Known Partnership that Made Modern Paris

The visionary behind the geometric streets and unified design of Paris.
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The Genius Design Behind Modern Paris
Key sources:
Haussmann's Renovation of Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussma...
Maps https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2023/05/ex...
Low rise buildings https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023...
Legendary Megastructures    • Legendary Megastructures | The Gigant...  

0:00 The beautiful city
0:44 The old city
1:03 Napoleon III takes control
1:38 Appoints Haussmann prefect
2:01 The transformation begins
2:45 Haussmann opens Paris up
3:28 Uniform building design
4:08 Arc De Triomphe
4:43 A global city
5:24 2024 Olympic Games

The most populated metro area in the EU has a surprising lack of tall buildings. This is by design. Paris limits the height of new buildings to 37 meters, and has clustered 20 of its 24 skyscrapers in the La Defense business district at the west end of its historical axis, 10 km away from the Louvre at its eastern end.

This straight vista exemplifies Paris’ geometric street plan and unified aesthetic. It wasn’t always this neat. To create what many regard as the world’s most beautiful city required a massively ambitious, disruptive reconstruction lasting decades, overseen by an urban visionary.

In the 1830s, a cholera pandemic devastated cities worldwide.

French President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, was uniquely positioned to act. He too was frustrated by these conditions and dreamed of making Paris a modern, hygienic, global city. But, although he was extremely popular, he was constitutionally-barred from running for reelection. So at the end of his term in 1851 he seized total control of the government and declared himself Napoleon III, Emperor of France. With absolute power, he fast-tracked his plans for Paris, appointing seasoned administrator Georges-Eugene Haussmann as the project’s leader.

They created 4,900 acres of parks, 24 new squares, and planted 600,000 trees. Never before had a city built so many parks so quickly. They constructed a 150 km long aqueduct to bring fresh spring water into the city and expanded the sewer system so it could carry away solid waste for the first time by adding 380 km of tunnels, which they also ran gas lines through to fuel new street lamps all over, turning Paris into the ‘City of Light.’

He meticulously mapped out 63 km of new wide, straight boulevards. This would require the demolition of 20,000 buildings and the relocation of 300,000 Parisians.

To replace what they tore down, 34,000 new buildings were erected in a uniform style: commercial space on the bottom, balconies on the middle floors, and at the top, dormer windows under roofs sloped at 45 degrees to maximize the amount of sunlight on the street. The facades were Roman-style limestone, while the roofs used zinc, giving Paris its distinctively harmonious blonde/gray look.

Haussmann used monuments as landmarks for roads and intersections. A general rule of thumb: the larger the statue, the longer the road. Few monuments on Earth are larger than the Arc de Triomphe, a war memorial. Haussmann’s most controversial move was remaking the Île de la Cité.

Napoleon and Haussmann aimed to complete the first phase of their citywide project in time to host the 1855 World’s Fair and its 5 million visitors. They succeeded, and over the next 15 years the duo continued improving the city for the benefit of all Parisians, and the tourists who arrived in ever greater numbers. In 1840 there were 87,000 passages across the English Channel. By 1899 there were 951,000. Today, Paris trails only Bangkok and London in welcoming more foreigners.

This week, Paris hosted the first Olympic ceremonies ever held outside of a stadium along a 6 km stretch of the Seine river. Grand Paris Express metro megaproject.

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