Mériadeck Architecture / Bordeaux
When thinking of Bordeaux, futuristic modern architecture probably isn't the first thing to come to mind. Similar to the slum clearance movement that was happening in the United Staes in the 1960s, Bordeaux city leaders, under a plan by city architect Jean Royer (not that Royer ), began creating a series of high rise residential and commercial buildings in the working class neighborhood of Mériadeck. Although some building happened in the early 1960s, substantial construction under a modified plan by Royer did not start until the 1970s. Allianz (Originally AGF) SCPA Arretche-Karasinki and Marcel Nouviale (1983) Joël Gourvellec and Victor Maldonado (1983) There is a network of pedestrian bridges over the streets connecting the buildings. This modernist scheme turned out to be a great way to effectively kill street vitality. Compared to almost everywhere else I visited in Bordeaux, Mériadeck is dead. Le Ponant by Jacques Salier,...