Boulevard des Provinces Françaises

Paris La Défense has upgraded and delivered the Boulevard des Provinces Françaises

The Cœur de Quartier development project will be completed in 2021. Ten years earlier, in 2011, the developer signed the first sales of land for the first phase of the Cœur de Quartier project. Formerly a railway wasteland, Cœur de Quartier is now more than 128,000 m² of housing, offices, shops, green spaces and bicycle paths.

The public spaces created and developed by Paris La Défense are the common threads and seams of this mixed-use operation, and today form true landscaped and pedestrian spaces.

These public spaces, which have now been delivered, both on the eastern and western sides, weave a network and connections with the adjacent neighborhoods within the district. The university, which was once hemmed in by the railway infrastructure, is now linked to the east by the extension of the Boulevard des Provinces Françaises and to the west by the Esplanade Patrice Chéreau. The loop is complete!

The RER infrastructures are partially covered by engineering structures to isolate them, the A14 freeway is covered by green spaces (terraces 6, 7 and 8). Cœur de quartier is now perfectly integrated into its urban environment.

The Boulevard des Provinces Françaises, the backbone of the Coeur de Quartier

Paris La Défense has entirely developed and managed the widening of the Boulevard des Provinces Françaises. Today, local residents benefit from a calmed artery, wide and comfortable sidewalks and lanes dedicated to public transportation and bicycles.

The work consisted of :

• Completing and renewing all the networks serving the neighborhood
• Renewing all roadway structures and surfaces
• Carrying out qualitative improvements to the roadway and sidewalks (installation of granite curbs, installation of specific pavements, resumption of sidewalks and pedestrian rights-of-way, renewal of public lighting and street furniture)
• Carry out new plantings.

The Boulevard des Provinces Françaises now has a two-way roadway 6 meters wide, two 4.50 meter lanes reserved for buses and bicycles, and wide, comfortable sidewalks.

In the extension of the boulevard, Paris La Défense has also carried out the work of planting the Terrasses. Delivered in 2019, these terraces now form a green framework and a green setting for the Cœur de Quartier residences.

Terrasses 6, 7 and 8, a green screen in the heart of the city

Terrasses 6, 7 and 8, to be delivered in 2019, are directly linked to Cœur de Quartier and the Nanterre Cœur Université housing lots. This vast natural space, framed by a mixed program of housing, offices and shops, has also opened up connections between the surrounding neighborhoods, the university and the La Défense slab. It is a very good example of urban renewal, which contributes to the influence of the area.

Designed by the urban planning team TGTFP (formerly Treuttel-Garcias-Treuttel et associés), Florence Mercier landscape designer and Paris La Défense, terraces 6, 7 and 8 form a small piece of countryside in the city. On the ground, the lawn surrounds colorful perennial gardens, embellished with groves and trees. Once a maintenance site for the RATP, the site is now a promenade, above the A14 freeway. These developments also help to reduce temperatures during heat waves (the plants release water vapor into the air) and reduce the amount of rainwater discharged into the sewer system by encouraging its infiltration into the soil, its absorption by the plants and the replenishment of groundwater.

Key figures for terrasses 6, 7 and 8

• 13,000 m² of landscaped areas
• 235 meters long and 55 meters wide
• 1.5 years of work between January 2018 and summer 2019