The Gare Montparnasse district is very marked by the big building operations of the 1960s to the 1990s. The numerous ways in which it malfunctions have already been revealed in the diagnosis carried out by Apur in 2005: the distribution of space given to streets is unbalanced and organised in a way that is difficult to understand, the green infrastructure is not sufficiently visible and the Maine-Montparnasse complex is badly integrated into its urban context.
Many studies already underway or in their planning stages show that there is now a desire to modernize the district.
Gare & Connexion is studying how to reorganise the station in preparation for the saturation point predicted in the 2020s. Redevelopment work on the Rue de Rennes should begin in 2011.
Lastly, two investors have presented the City of Paris with projects to renovate and extend the building complex of the Tour Maine – Montparnasse (EITMM) and Gaîté/Vandamne Nord.
Their propositions plan to considerably increase commercial surface areas and to change the interface between the private complexes and public space.
In order to prepare for these changes and to allow the territory, whose qualities are sometimes forgotten, to be rediscovered, two principal building projects need to be undertaken: the modernization of the urban form, which of the two will take longer and will eventually be encompassed by changes in the Land Use Plan –PLU- and the redevelopment of public space which could be started sooner and would bring important and visible improvements.
This study proposes evolution scenarios for both these issues.
