Toulouse: the renovation of the Tour des Minimes is progressing rapidly
As the houses are razed, rue du Maroc, close to the Matabiau station, we only see her. The great Tower emerges, more and more beautiful as the work progresses.
“Excuse me for the expression, but it’s starting to look bad, isn’t it? At the same time, Jean-François Lefevre, site manager, looks up at the 19 floors of the Tower, located at 3 boulevard des Minimes, near Matabiau station, in Toulouse. Present every day on the site on behalf of the company Stibat, he is at the forefront of the progress of the work.
Pharaonic works (9.7 million euros) which began in March 2021 and should be completed in the spring of 2023. That is 27 months dedicated to the complete renovation of the balconies and facades, the insulation of the gables and the waterproofing of the roofs of the 108 apartments housed in this 64-metre-high building, integrated in the early 1960s.
For the time being, the two levels of the tower have already been renovated and the scaffolding is moving on the facade facing the station. “Stairwells 1 and 2 as well as the west gable are finished”, confirms Jean-François Lefevre. Indeed, the change is striking: impeccable white facades and green terrazzo on the balconies. The latter have been restored to their original color thanks to the company Couleur Soleil, after being painted an ugly pink for a long time. Jean-François Lefevre says content of the result. “It’s very rewarding. This extraordinary site forces us to work differently, in addition, we operate in an occupied zone. We try to be as discreet as possible, but inevitably, we enter into the privacy of the inhabitants of the building”, recognizes the site manager. Moreover, it is not uncommon for them to be offered coffee when they are on the balconies. During these meetings, “the question that comes up most often is: when do you finish,” he adds.
“his soul is preserved”
Crossed on the slab, David is one of the owners whose apartment has already been repaired. “Now it’s very pleasant, in addition the soul of the building has been preserved,” he says. Like all the residents of the building, David continued to occupy his apartment, located on the 14th floor, during the works. “We had scaffolding in front of the windows for 9 months, but it was bearable”. Today, he says he is proud of his Tower, “it is no longer a wart in the urban landscape”.
“We are in the process of finding our original building as the architect of the buildings of France wanted. It’s very successful, ”rejoices in turn Annabelle Chaubet, president of the building’s union council.
On the 14th floor, David’s apartment is located on the same landing as the T4 which will host the Architecture Days this Saturday (see box below). The visual artist Marilina Prigent and the photographer Marie-Stéphane Salgas take advantage of this meeting to present their project “Memory of a tour, stories of building sites”. Do not miss their sound box in the hall which represents the building. Just put on the headphones and press the buttons. And there, we hear a worker who sings, a resident who talks or just the noise of the construction site. Magnificent.
On Saturday you can enter the tower
If you have always wanted to know what the apartments in the Grande Tour, on Boulevard des Minimes, could belong to this Saturday, you will be able to enter the building. On the occasion of the Architecture Days, the visual artist Marilina Prigent and the photographer Marie-Stéphane Salgas present their project “Memory of a tour, stories of construction sites” in a superb apartment on the 14th floor, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. . During the works, the two women work in osmosis to write, fix and disseminate the past and present history of this extraordinary building. Marilina Prigent has already created a first film in which she collected micro stories from the oldest members of the Tower. “Currently, I am preparing a second video installation on the newcomers, just to have the two faces and to show the diversity of the Tower”. As for Marie-Stéphane, she continues to spend a lot of time on the scaffolding photographing the workers or in the apartments “to show the diversity of the interiors”. Saturday will be the sixth time they exhibit their work.