Toulouse: Tour Occitanie, ex-Resto U du Ramier… why these projects are not moving forward
Tour Occitanie, former Resto U du Ramier, City of Music in Saint-Michel or the arts in La Grave… many projects are pending in Toulouse. Our explanations.
Has the Pink City put on hold? You might think so when you list the major urban projects that are treading water: Tour Occitanie, ex-Resto U du Ramier, Cité de la Musique in Saint-Michel and des Arts in La Grave… In fact, each file a son (or his) explanation(s).
The Occitania Tower, the emblematic skyscraper of the new “Grand Matabiau, quais d’Oc” district, brilliantly announced by Jean-Luc Moudenc at Midem in Cannes in March 2017, in the presence of its prestigious architect, the American Daniel Libeskind, thus plays the Arlesiennes. The space reserved for it, in principle, by SNCF-Immobilier, between the station and the bridge leading to the Media Library, is for the moment very empty. The developer, the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, has been ensuring for months that it is waiting for all the legal remedies brought against its 150 m high tower project to be “purged”. Gossips whisper that the Covid crisis could also have an effect on the delay in starting this urban rocket, which represents a heavy investment…
The current decay and abandonment of the former Restaurant U du Ramier stir up many memories of former Toulouse students. The same Compagnie de Phalsbourg must create a foundation “with a cultural and popular vocation” in this building labeled “remarkable building of the century”, which we owe to the architect Robert-Louis Valle, a disciple of Corbusier, and which will be restored by the ‘Architect Dominique Perrault. Éric Paillot, the vice-president of the Cie de Phalsbourg, mentioned in our columns “the context of the Covid and the Grand Partc Garonne” to explain the delay in the ignition of a project “neither buried nor suspended at the Occitanie Tower” . For the moment, not the ounce of a start of work.
The creation of an auditorium in the former Saint-Michel prison, closed for 11 years, is about to become a real sea serpent. The idea of digging this music room under the prison for the rehearsals of the Orchester du Capitole was introduced by Jean-Luc Moudenc during his municipal campaign in 2014. A project quickly reviewed, the prospect of an underground auditorium not being potentially serious, and postponed to the next mandate. The project, which has become City of Music, was again at the heart of the re-election of the mayor in 2020. After long negotiations with the State, still owner of the former prison, partly classified as a historic monument, which now agrees to sell at a reasonable price (5.5 million euros), and with the local residents, the mayor now wishes to obtain a commitment from the State, the Region and the Department so that they participate in the financing of the project. We still risk waiting a few years for the first concert.
About the City of Arts on the site of La Grave, it must take place in the part of the former hospital classified as a historical monument, on the banks of the Garonne. While the City has undertaken the remarkable restoration of the Dôme de la Grave, which is to house an exhibition hall, the Cité des Arts project, which replaced a Cité de la Danse project, remains unclear. But everything happens for those who know how to wait, they say.