Miles of Skyscrapers

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 February 1930, Page 18

Miles of Skyscrapers

Tardieu, Minister of the , Interior, is sponsoring a plan for the immediate construction of a straight road, running from the Arch of Triumph in Paris to the centre of the little town of St. 'Germain, -25 kilometres', about 20 miles away. This road is to bo lined on Iboth sides by 25storey blocks of flats. This latest project for the relief of traffic congestion and housing shortage in Paris has the advantage of being sponsored by a man who is popularly know as “Tardieu, the American." The nickname was won by the (Minister for .carrying out a vast scheme of electrification of France's railways, while half the members of Parliament conuld not make up their minds as to the advisability of the move. He further modernised the road system of France. While innumerable schemes for housing relief have been submitted to the Paris authorities and public, none has received such immediate and general | approval as Tardieu's, mainly because his great roadway to St. Germain does not envisage tearing down any of the * older parts of the French capital, a ‘ feature of most of the other schemes. The Parisians may be hard pressed for room within the comparatively narrow limits set by the old lines of fortifications, but they join the whole of i France when it comes to protesting against tearing down historic landmarks and entire blocks of churches, palaces and slums. ’ . Tardieu's scheme gets away from trying toi settle the problem of Paris congestion on the old territory, and places it by one vigorous stroke of the pen completely out of reach by archaeologists and historians. Besides the old Paris, with its incredible labyrinths of streets and streetlcts, historic monuments and sentimental associations with the past, he is going to build a new Paris, airy and roomy, capable of housing with comfort half a million people, and more as time goes on. This new area is to be served with the most modern rapid transit service. Tardieu's project, which awaits rati lieation by the French Parliament, a

matter that is expected to come about this autumn, is really a plan resurrected from the time of Louis XIY. The great Louis and his engineers foresaw tne day when Paris would not be capable of holding its ever-increasing population. They thought of constructing suburban settlements along the road to St. Germain. The lack of rapid transit in those days and the repugnance of the Parisian to dwell outside the walls made their scheme unrealisable. Napoleon also thought of it, and his Avenue de la Grand-c Armee, the magnificent thoroughfare behind the Arch of Triumph, is to serve as tho first link in the great highway that Tardieu contemplates. The total cost of construction of the road, asphalt covered, amounts to approximately £1,500,000. To this must be added tho purchase of land and right of way, which, it is calculated, will bring the total close to £12,000,000. If the city of Paris decides to tako the responsibility for the carrying- out of the .vast undertaking, it wall mean an increase of 3A centimes additional taxation per annum for every taxpayer in the capital.

While tho city of Paris debates an the advisability of launching itself in this scheme, Tardieu is already busy buying up land and the right of way for his skyscraper boulevard that is to astonish the world. He has also given permission for the formation of a syndicate for the building of the lane of blocks of flats. The great difficulty to be experienced bv the syndicate lies in the acquisition of private property along the roadway. Owners, however, have already been discreetly informed that in the event of a refusal to co-operate in a matter which is considered of national importance, the Government will proceed to expropriation. The great benefit, attached to Tardien’s scheme, in so far as health conditions are concerned, is im the fact that the proposed highway runs from one forest to the other, from the Bois do Boulogne to the gigantic forest of St. Germain, once the private hunting property of King Francois- I. This region has hitherto been kept clear of industrialisation, the factories having been built most north fo the city.- The

To End Housing Shortage in Paris

Tardieu’s Radical Building Programme

, immense rows of flats will, therefore, practically pass through a region af solid gardens. “When the road is completed, ’ ’ says Tardicu, “we will have achieved something that no people in the course of history have done. It mill be a model of urban development -and will deterI mine the next half century of city planning just as Baron Hausmann's streets and boulevards have guided town planners elsewhere during the past fifty years. ’ ’ The road will be flanked on each side by elevated pavements and a | bridge across alternating with level I crossings at each block. iA parkway will run in the centre. This parkway also will be elevated above the motor car driveway. Under the roadway a fast underground service will be inaugurated consisting of two superimposed tunnels. For the first time Paris will have an express service underground, one of the tunnels to be utilised solely for rapid transit and the other for local eorfnections. The most remarkable feature envisaged for the Paris-'St. Germain roadway is the absence of cross-street traffic. A r o turnings of any kind will be permitted. AH the beauty experts and aesthet- ■ ics who have been howling for years [ against the building of a. single house above five storeys,, on the ground that. [ anything higher would deface the beauty of Paris, have been silenced once, and for all by Tardicu’s statement that the five-storey house is antiquated and that Paris must get used to the idea that it is going to have skyscrapers, just like American citiqs. Twenty of these new blocks of flats on each side of the road are to be built at once Others are to follow until both sides of the 20-mile roadway are covered from Paris to St. Germain. As a result of the proposed building, 'St. Germain, which has hitherto maintained its dreamy medieval atmosphere, is awakening and starting a building programme of its own, as the citizens realise that their town will become the terminus of the most radical modern experiment ever at tempted in Europe