Renovation of the old Bourse de Commerce into an exhibition building for contemporary art. The building is leased to billionaire François Pinault who'll show his personal collection in there.
The circular building was originally a wheat exchange built from 1763 to 1767. It was almost completely rebuilt in 1888. Only the dome remains from the earlier structure.
Same view from rue du Louvre in a larger frame.
Some details and surroundings.
This is called Colonne Médécis, a column erected in 1574, last remain of a mansion that sat there before it was torn down to build the 18th-century wheat exchange.
View of the back of the building to the Nelson Mandela garden.
I took these pics yesterday. It is open to the public already. You get a bit more details in the
wiki article.
In the same neighborhood, just 100 yards away at the corner of rue du Louvre and rue Étienne Marcel, they're refurbishing the old post office known as "Poste Centrale du Louvre" or "Hôtel des Postes".
I think there was a mail sorting facility in there, that's no longer needed. So the renovation is making something mixed-use of the large building built between 1880 and 1886.
There still will be a post office, but also a police station, a nursery, some office space, some retail, a hotel and 17 social housing units.
From rue du Louvre.
Rue Étienne Marcel.
Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
That was the building from the 4 sides. It's all about the same.
Let's see about some details, though.
This will be a main entrance to the little mall in there.
You can't get in yet, but I could shoot the inside through the doors.
Nice neighborhood.
More pictures of both the Bourse de Commerce and the Poste du Louvre
here.
Now on rue de Rivoli, the renovation of the Samaritaine department store is close to complete.
The large store would take 4 buildings and several other buildings over the same block are being refurbished, so it's still a bit of a mess.
Rue de Rivoli was nonetheless crowded yesterday afternoon, like this.
You got to love the bike path on that street.
So that glass building right there is the only new one of the department store. Everything else is from the Art Deco era or older.
Just a few steps further, there's this Deco building also owned by Samaritaine.
Same building from the little alleys around.
Now back to the glassy facade.
Heading to the river through that alley with the largest building of the department store along.
This tiny footbridge seems to connect the glass building to the older stuff above.
We're heading to the river to see the Deco facade from Pont Neuf.
Here we are on the bridge (Pont Neuf) looking at the Deco facade that's probably the most iconic of that department store.
Voilà, that's enough for now. I took all these pictures yesterday afternoon. If you want more about the renovation of la Samaritaine, see the related
thread of pss-archi.eu