Part-Dieu () is an area of

Lyon Metropolis The Metropolis of Lyon (french: Métropole de Lyon), also known as ("Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity located in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly elected metropolitan authority encompassing t ...

. It is also the second largest tertiary district in France, after La Défense in Greater Paris, with over 1,150,000 m² of office and service space, along with 45,000 service sector jobs, 2,500 companies and a 97% occupancy rate. The area contains the Part-Dieu train station. Located on the Left Bank of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

river, this urban centre also provides major entertainment and cultural facilities, including one of the largest urban shopping malls in Europe, 800 shops,

Paul Bocuse Paul Bocuse (; 11 February 1926 – 20 January 2018) was a French chef based in Lyon who was known for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. A student of Eugénie Brazier, he was one of the most prominent ...

indoor food market, café terraces, the Auditorium concert hall,

Bourse du Travail The Bourse du Travail (French for "labour exchanges"), a French form of the labour council, were working class organizations that encouraged mutual aid, education, and self-organization amongst their members in the late nineteenth and early ...

theatre, Municipal Library, Departmental Archives and Montluc Fort. Moreover, it harbours

Tour Incity The Tour Incity is a skyscraper office in Lyon, France. The building was completed in 2015 in the business district of La Part-Dieu, at the intersection of the Cours Lafayette (main entrance) and Garibaldi Street to replace the obsolete UAP tower ...

(202m), Tour Part-Dieu (164m) and Tour Oxygène (117m), making

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

one of the few European cities able to display high-rise architecture right next to its historical core. The CBD is currently undergoing major renovation and construction works, according to a revitalization project totalling €2.5 billion between public and private investments.

Governance

The current 3rd arrondissement Mayor is

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

Véronique Bertrand-Dubois. She works for

' permanent commission as an advisor on urban habitat, planning, housing and politics. SPL Part-Dieu, or La Part-Dieu's publicly owned local development corporation, is used by local authorities as an operational tool. It was created back in 2014 and is governed by a board of administrators, chaired by David Kimelfed, head of Lyon Metropolis. 20 people work on urban, economic, human and resources related problems. They manage, control, promote and coordinate the La Part-Dieu project.

is headquartered in La Part-Dieu district, in a brutalist building from the 1970s, on Garibaldi street. It concentrates hundreds of civil workers and local figures hold regular meetings there. Other authority figures include Police Headquarters inside Montluc Fort since 2007 and Sytral Headquarters (Lyon

transportation authority A transportation authority or public transport authority is an authority which regulates or administers transportation related matters. Most transportation authorities in Western countries are under the direction of elected officials. In the Unite ...

Urbanity

Urban and green space

A district of 21,000 inhabitants, La Part-Dieu has developed on both sides of the railway and is mostly made up of high-rise and

low-rise A low-rise is a building that is only a few stories tall or any building that is shorter than a high-rise, though others include the classification of mid-rise. Definition Emporis defines a low-rise as "an enclosed structure below 35 metres 15 ...

architecture. According to La Part-Dieu SPL area, this 3rd arrondissement district is roughly limited by Garibaldi street to the West ( Rhône Docks and Place Guichard district), Juliette Récamier to the North ( Brotteaux district), Maurice Flandin to the East (La Villette district) and the former La Buire automotive plants to the South (ZAC de La Buire). The original project was based on La Défense urban planning model. La Rize river used to run through Part-Dieu but was buried in a sewage system. Nowadays, urban planners aim at preventing urban heat island effects thanks to green spaces. For example, Garibaldi street, once a main urban highway, has been revamped as a part of a green path going from Tête d’Or Park to Sergent Blandan and Gerland Park. La Part-Dieu also offers several plazas (Nelson Mandela, Europe, Du lac, Voltaire and Francfort), several gardens (Jugan, Jacob-Kaplan and Sainte-Marie-Perrin) and a park (Montluc Fort), on top of the centenary plane trees from the former cavalry barracks.

Urban services

*4 sports facilities *9 private nurseries *concierge services including dry-cleaning and postal services *primary and business schools *Manufacture des tabacs Lyon 3 Jean Moulin University campus

History

Etymology

Various theories try to explain the origins of the "Part-Dieu" name (literally "Property of God"). It could either come from the tenacity with which several landlords managed to save pieces of land from

waters or how Guillaume de Fuer named his parcel "Pardeu" by the end of the 12th century. A last theory states that Marc-Antoine Mazenod gave his 140 hectares land to Hôtel-Dieu Public Hospitals after his daughter was saved miraculously and named it "Gift from God".

Farmlands

Before the 1850s, La Part-Dieu was composed of rural flood-zones. It was ceded by the Mazenod-Servient family to the

Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon was a hospital of historical significance situated on the west bank of the Rhone river, on the Presqu'île (the Peninsula between the Saône and Rhone rivers which run through the city center). It has been out of use since 201 ...

Public Hospitals in 1737. The embankment of the

river and construction of bridges ( see

Bridges of Lyon This is a list of bridges in the French city of Lyon on the Rhône and Saône rivers, ordered from upstream to downstream portions of the river. File:Pontsdelyon.svg, right circle 117 75 10 Pont de l'Île Barbe circle 25 184 10 Pont Schuman cir ...

) led to the management of flood risk and urbanization of the eastern Rhone bank from 1772 onwards. By the end of the 18th century, La Part-Dieu domain was a large estate bordered by the Brotteaux and Guillotière districts. Lafayette bridge erected in 1872 accelerated the eastward urbanization process, while cleansed farmlands gave way to wheat production. From 1830 to 1848, the city erected walls to protect itself from foreign invasions. Montluc Fort saw life in 1831. La Part-Dieu, thus becoming a fort, acquired a military function. Because of the administrative, urban and geological complexity of Lyon, rail transport brought multiple train stations to existence. The Part-Dieu one was solely dedicated to freight transport.

Cavalry barracks

In 1844, Public Hospitals sold their land to the military administration, which built cavalry barracks from 1851 to 1863. However, the process of urbanization was limited by traverse axes and the fact that Lafayette street was the only road connecting La Part-Dieu with Central Lyon. The district was added to Lyon administrative area in 1852. To link the city with Geneva, Gare des Brotteaux was designed by the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée company, which led to the dismantling of wall fortifications to make way for railway lines. Meanwhile, the military compound took on the orthogonal footprint of the original farm estate. Many cavalry units were mobilized during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century,

Édouard Herriot Édouard Marie Herriot (; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister (1924–1925; 1926; 1932) and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the f ...

was elected Mayor of Lyon, a dominating French city outside of Paris, thanks to its dynamic industrial and commercial output. Inspired by the French hygiéniste urbanist movement, similar to

Haussmann's renovation of Paris Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval neighbourh ...

, he undertook major works to improve urban and social space. The eastward urban expansion of rail and road networks turned La Part-Dieu

marshalling yards A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard ( British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ...

into the centre of the metropolitan area. In 1926, a project based on American Downtowns emerged.

Post-war housing

Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, France's top priorities were to rebuild the housing stock fast, to push for economic development and to favour efficient movements by car. Due to the evolution of warfare, the military compound lost its importance and became part of a massive housing estate project. In 1960, the French State sold the lands to a private company, SERL, to bring the project to life. The subsequent demolition of existing structures took 5 years. The fact that large estates were owned by state administrations (Public Hospitals, SNCF and the military), allowed for a profound transformation right in the middle of the city. The program evolved under the mandate of Mayor Pradel, not only by pushing for housing construction but also for encouraging the construction of an administrative centre and private office space to host public services, such as radio and police stations. The winning architectural project abided by the Athens Charter, a rigorous

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

urban planning philosophy developed by Le Corbusier. It promoted the separation of human and car flow through the use of "above the street" concrete structures, in a La Défense fashion, allowing for car supremacy on the lower street level, while overhead orthogonal architecture standing on reinforced concrete stilts followed the Unité d'habitation principles. Consequently, several buildings were drawn by the hands of Jacques Perrin-Fayolle, Jean Sillan and Jean Zumbrunnen, nonetheless, only a third of the planned structures were constructed.

Directional center

While the Charles de Gaulle government pushed for the decentralization of France, car-centric urbanism from the

Trente Glorieuses ''Les Trente Glorieuses'' (; 'The Glorious Thirty') was a thirty-year period of economic growth in France between 1945 and 1975, following the end of the Second World War. The name was first used by the French demographer Jean Fourastié, who ...

fuelled peripherical growth at the expense of city centres. As a result, a management plan was drafted by urbanist Charles Delfante and Jean Zumbrunnen, under the supervision of Mayor Louis Pradel. It included the development of commercial, tertiary and cultural activities, to compete with Paris and other international cities and to turn La Part-Dieu into a showcase of modernity. A central train station was planned but the SNCF refused to fund it, a move which hindered the purpose of the directional center. Lyon had to become the "Balancing Metropolis", relying on regional cities like

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

or Saint Etienne, that fought the impoverishment and depopulation of urban centers, owing to a network of highways passing through La Part-Dieu. The original plan included major east–west and north–south green axes, pedestrian-friendly spaces such as a central plaza well served by public transit, and an iconic tower as tall as the

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière (french: Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière) is a minor basilica in Lyon, France. It was built with private funds between 1872 and 1896 in a dominant position overlooking the city. The site it occupies was ...

from its historical hill. However, the 1970s oil shocks and following housing crises altered the project as profitability became the main concern, isolating the district from the rest of city flows. Pedestrians were alienated because of the rupture of major axes caused by the expansion of the central mall, and also by favouring vehicle transport over public transit and finally by constructing concrete pedestrian bridges several meters above street level that isolated architectures into islands. Nevertheless, several iconic structures were elevated during this decade, such as the Municipal Library (1972), the

Mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India ...

and Auditorium (1975) and Tour Part-Dieu (1977). To that end, La Part-Dieu differentiated itself from the historical center with a strong architectural identity by offering high end tertiary activities and public services.

Major rail node

In 1974, it was decided to transfer the old Brotteaux station to La Part-Dieu thanks to its central position. By that time, Line of Lyon Métro arrived inside the Mall in 1978. Half of the marshalling yards were converted into a large real estate project to fund the development of the new train station on each side of the rail tracks. The objective was also to integrate the district with its railways, that is, Central Lyon with eastern neighborhoods. 1983 saw the inauguration of France's first high speed rail TGV line, between Lyon and Paris. However, large urban roads surrounding the business district such as Viver-Merle Boulevard, kept the business district isolated from Central Lyon and the train station.

European business district

La Part-Dieu's expansion slowed down during the 1990s because of a strong momentum of urban development all over the agglomeration, regarding the Confluence district, the Cité Internationale, Gerland and La Doua Campus. The City Council drove efforts to minimize car travel and to encourage public transit within city limits. It also wished to establish a proper European business district doubling its office supply by densifying the area with 7 highrises such as the Swiss Life and Oxygène Tower, although most proposals were scrapped, because Lyon was focusing elsewhere. Other objectives aimed at reintegrating the district within its surrounding urban environment by rethinking major axes, bringing the T1 tramway to life, renovating public spaces, improving connections between the métro and the main train station and demolishing elevated pedestrian footbridges.

Economy

Regional and urban context

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a GDP of 250 billion euros, is the second French and fourth

European region The European Union created a Committee of the Regions to represent Regions of Europe as the layer of EU government administration directly below the nation-state level. The committee has its headquarters in Brussels. Reasons given for this incl ...

in terms of GDP : 70,000 companies are created there each year. It is the first industrial

French region France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (french: régions, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collect ...

(with 500,000 industrial jobs on 50,000 sites) and second only in terms of

exports An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

(imports amount to 11.2% and exports to 12.4% of France's global exchanges). Chemicals are the main export sector. According to a 2018 study of Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC),

is a Beta- city, meaning that it's an important globalized city, instrumental in linking their region or state into the world economy. It is also a credible alternative to Paris, with a GDP of 74.6 billion euros and France's second business park.

Economic landscape

Over half of La Part-Dieu's economic landscape is dedicated to sustainable city and smart systems, showing a 16 percent growth between 2008 and 2013 and now representing more than 30,000 jobs from 45,000 tertiary jobs from 60,000 total jobs inside the district. *It's mostly composed of city infrastructure and urban services (18,000 jobs) **City and building construction ( Bouygues, Icade, Foncia,

, Préfecture du Rhône, Nexity) **Energy ( EDF, GRDF, SPIE, Energy Pool, Vinci, Dalkia) **Transport and mobility ( SNCF,

Keolis Keolis is a multinational transportation company that operates public transport systems. The company manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus and funicular services. ...

, XPOLogistics, Axxès, Clasqui) **Other public services ( INSEE, La Poste, Police Headquarters) *And engineering and digital systems (11,500 jobs) **Information and digital technology (DCS Easywear, Intitek,

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, Bouygues Telecom, Euriware, RFI) **Tertiary functions of the industrial sector ( Areva, Elkem Silicones,

Solvay Solvay may refer to: Companies and organizations * Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Brussels, Belgium * Solvay Conference, founded by Ernest Solvay, deals with open questions in physics and chemistry * Solvay Indupa, an Argen ...

) **Engineering service provider ( Egis, Setec, Tractebel, engineering

GDF Suez Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. It ...

, Artelia, Davidson, Burgeap) *The rest is composed of traditional business and support services (11,500 jobs) **Financial activities ( Caisse d'Épargne, BNP Paribas, Agence France Locale, Caisse des impôts,

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

, Natixis, BPI France,

Banque Populaire Groupe Banque Populaire ("People's Bank") was a French group of Cooperative banking, cooperative banks. The central entity was controlled by 15 independent regional banks and also operated under the CASDEN and the Crédit Coopératif subsidiaries. ...

) **Audit, consulting, juridical advisory and high value added services ( Ernst&Young, Adamas, ManPower,

Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim" or "Edge" City) is a roughly crescent-shaped conurbation in the central-western Netherlands, consisting primarily of the four largest Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht); their suburbs, and many tow ...

, Amaris) **Life and non-life insurance ( AXA, Klesia, MAAF,

April April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. It is the first of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the second of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. April is commonly associated with ...

, MMA, Swiss Life) La Part-Dieu hosts national and regional headquarters of banks ( Caisse d’Épargne,

, Banque Rhône Alpes,

, etc.), national and regional headquarters of leading consultancy firms (EY, Mc Kinsey, Adamas, and Manpower) and global headquarters of international groups (

April Group April Group is a French insurance company, headquartered in Lyon, France History Bruno Rousset and Xavier Coquard co-founded the insurance broker April Assurances. In 1988, the company had fifteen employees. The growth of the company was fir ...

and Elkem Silicones).

Key Figures

*1 150 000 m2 of office space *a flexible offer of 50 to 50,000 m2 *rents from €120 to €320 per m2 *97% occupancy rate *2500 companies *2000 hotel rooms and residences from one to four stars *20 places for seminars and reunions *8 business centres *available fibre optic network

Landmarks

Sole skyscraper and high-rises

The skyline is being shaped according to the Alps mountain range. Tour UAP, built in 1974 at 75 m, was demolished in 2014 to make way for the Incity Tower.

Tour Incity

, Lyon's tallest structure, was designed by Valode & Pistre and AIA architects. The spire reaches 202 meters and was installed by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. Around 2,700 employees work on 32 floors and share the same corporate restaurant. On the top of that, Tour Incity was the first tower in

to obtain the low energy-consumption label, along with HQE and

BREEAM BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of ...

Excellent labels. It was completed in 2016 and currently hosts regional Caisse d'Épargne bank headquarters and several SNCF branches.

Tour Part-Dieu

Completed in 1977, this 164 meters tall building was designed by US-based architecture firm Cossutta & Associates for the main structure and by Stéphane du Château for its pyramid crown. Mainly occupied by office space, it also hosts a four-star Radisson Blu Hotel at the top. Originally named Crédit Lyonnais, it is now called Tour Part-Dieu, but is best known by its nickname, le Crayon or the Pencil. Its postmodern style is showing through the terracotta cladding made up of pozzolanic sands, imitating the reddish Lyon tiles, and also through the main volume echoing with the Rose Tower traboule in the Vieux Lyon quarter from

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

Tour Oxygène

Tour Oxygène is a 117-meter tall high-rise crowned by a leaf resonating with the district's tradition of crowning high-rises, such as Tour Part-Dieu. Its base serves as an extension and as a direct link to the Part-Dieu Mall, along with an underground parking lot. Designed by Arte Charpentier Architects and constructed in 2010, Tour Oxygène reflects the dynamism that Lyon has been experiencing since the early 2000s.

Tour Swiss life

Tour Swiss Life was designed by Christian Batton and Robert Roustit and completed in 1989. It reaches 82 meters and holds many Swiss Life office spaces. The whole architecture is surrounded by moats and is covered by typical late 80s and early 90s blue cladding. The company launched a project of a 220-meter skyscraper called Swiss Life 2 (formerly Eva), on the existing parking lot.

Other landmarks

Railway Station

Originally planned during the 1960s, Part-Dieu railway station only opened in 1983 as part of a high speed rail line project between

and Paris. It was designed by Charles Delfante, Michel Macary, Eugène Gachon and Jean-Louis Girodet, and serves as a link between Lyon and

Villeurbanne Villeurbanne (; frp, Velorbana) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. It is situated northeast of Lyon, with which it forms the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area in France after ...

, as its design allows pedestrian traffic under concrete rail viaducts. Currently saturated, it is undergoing major renovation and construction works, since it welcomes 120 000 travellers and up to 150 high-speed " TGV" trains per day.

Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse

La Part-Dieu covered food market is an international reference in terms of French and Lyon cuisine. 48 merchants ( fishmongers, cheesemakers, bakers and pastry cooks, caterers, cellarmen and restaurant owners ) work under the same roof and perpetuate local traditions of Lyon, the gastronomical capital of France. In 1859, the city inaugurated its first indoor food market with a 19th Century glass and cast-iron architecture in Cordeliers, easing the lives of merchants and consumers, and then decided to innovate the architectural design in the future La Part-Dieu district. Thus in 1971 the new covered market opened. Three decades later, the Halles were put in line with safety standards. It now bears the name of

, the famed starred French chef from Lyon. Around 600,000 people visited Les Halles during the 2015 Festival of Lights weekend.

Mall

La Part-Dieu mall was the largest urban mall in Europe when it opened in 1975. Built on the cavalry barracks' former location, it references the past with a parking lot named Cuirassiers or "Light Cavalry". The shopping centre has 240 shops and restaurants over five levels and is frequented by 35 million visitors a year. It also has a 14 screen multiplex cinema. Mass transportation reinforced its position as a regional shopping hub. In 2010 the mall got a major extension thanks to the Oxygène Tower. This Unibail-Rodamco owned project is currently undergoing a major renovation project, totalling 300 million euros, according to a Winy Maas design.

Auditorium Maurice Ravel

This concrete shell was named after the famed Lyon musician and was drawn by architect Henri Pottier, assistant of urbanist Charles Delfante. Even though the new auditorium offered a great Roman theatre design, it lacked a decent acoustic one. However, several renovations fixed the sound issue. It currently hosts the Orchestre National de Lyon and a substantial organ from the former

Trocadéro The Trocadéro (), site of the Palais de Chaillot, is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. It is also the name of the 1878 palace which was demolished in 1937 to make way for the Palai ...

Palace for the 1878 Exposition Universelle.

Bourse du Travail theatre

Bourse du Travail theatre was constructed between 1929 and 1936 in

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style by Charles Meysson, chief architect of Lyon. The building facade is covered by a large

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

from 1934, by the hand of 35 mosaists, according to a work from painter Fernand Fargeot, representing "the city embellished by labour" hence its name "Labour Exchange" or "Bourse du Travail". Interiors are covered by plaster and painted murals inspired by

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

Municipal Library

In July 1966, Mayor Louis Pradel decided to experiment the library of the future inside the Part-Dieu project. 27,000 square meters are distributed into 3 levels, each dedicated to public reading, studies and research, while a silo contains all historical documents from the former library. The library is opened to university researchers and middle school students alike. The 1980s saw the mass informatization of data. Users had to wait until the late 2000s to get an entrance opened towards the train station plaza. The structure is currently undergoing renovation.

City and Departmental Archives

This institution was created after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

in Lyon. Documentation from the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for ...

period used to be stored inside Hôtel de Ville vaults until it was all regrouped inside a 2014 site that opened in La Part-Dieu. It was drawn by Dumetier-design, Gautier-Conquet and Séquences. The consultation room of this golden-clad secure building currently hosts a large collection of maps, both public administrative and private reserves, notarial archives and documents from the historical library, from the year 861 till today.

Lyon Metropolis headquarters

headquarters were built between 1976 and 1978 by René Gimbert Jacques Vergély in a brutalist style. Four massive square-shaped pier foundations bear the whole suspended structure, doubling as elevator shafts, and four concrete boxes self intersecting on top of it form a crown. Mirror-like curtain walls reflect the surrounding urban environment.

Montluc Fort and Prison museum

Montluc Fort was erected in 1831 under

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

's reign as part of Lyon's fortified belt, to protect the city from foreign invasions, especially

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n ones.

Montluc prison Montluc prison () is a former prison located on rue Jeanne Hachette in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, France. It was known for being an internment, torture and killing place by the Gestapo during the occupation of France by the Nazis. History B ...

opened in 1926 from the existing fort. Under the

Vichy Regime Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

, it became a major Jewish deportation center and

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

prison. Jean Moulin and

Marc Bloch Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France ov ...

were imprisoned there. It was later converted into a civilian prison in 1947 and into a museum in 2010.

Church of Blessed "Saint" Sacrement

Inaugurated in 1905, Blessed "Saint" Sacrament Church combines

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

styles. Its architecture and unfinished bell tower were drawn by Louis Sainte-Marie-Perrin, architect of

. The church was originally designed to preach Christian values in an immoral working-class neighbourhood with a high poverty rate and a low number of baptizations. It has recently being added to a catholic school by AFAA architecture firm.

Garibaldi swimming pool

Garibaldi swimming pool became the first indoor and public swimming pool in Lyon when it opened in 1933. Designed by architect C.Colliard and engineer Camille Chalumeau in a typical

style, it was only built in a matter of months.

Transportation

La Part-Dieu is the main Lyon transportation hub that includes : *a high speed, regional, national, international and freight train station currently saturated and undergoing renovation, that offers: **regional

TER Ter or TER may refer to: Places * River Ter, in Essex, England * Ter (river), in Catalonia * Ter (department), a region in France * Torre (river), (Slovene: ''Ter''), a river in Italy * Ter, Ljubno, a settlement in the Municipality of Ljubno ob ...

rail lines to

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...

, Valence,

Roanne Roanne (; frp, Rouana; oc, Roana) is a commune in the Loire department, central France. It is located northwest of Lyon on the river Loire. It has an important Museum, the ''Musée des Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie Joseph-Déchelette'' (Fren ...

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ...

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...

and

Annecy Annecy ( , ; frp, Èneci or ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, south of Geneva, Switzerland. Nicknamed ...

**national

and TGV lines to major French city centres such as Paris,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. **international high speed TGV rail lines to major

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

city centres such as

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

( SNCF), London (

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

( Lyria),

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

(

Thalys Thalys (French: ) is a French-Belgian high-speed train operator originally built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar trains that go from Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam to London via Li ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

(

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

) and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

(

Trenitalia Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, the company was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transp ...

), between 2 and 6 hours * Lyon-Saint-Exupéry International Airport and high speed rail station, in less than 30 minutes, thanks to a

Rhônexpress Rhônexpress is an express tram-train service which links central Lyon, France, with its airport, Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, and the TGV train station located there. The route is long, and served by six tram-train sets, built by Swiss man ...

tramway, with flights to more than 120 international destinations. *line of

Lyon Métro The Lyon Metro (french: Métro de Lyon) is a rapid transit system serving Lyon Metropolis, France. First opened in 1974, it currently consists of four lines, serving 40 stations and comprising of route. Part of the Transports en commun lyonnais, ...

* tramway lines (T1, T3 and T4) * local bus lines (C1, C2, C3, C7, C 13, 25, 37, 38 and 70) *regional bus lines to

Isère Isère ( , ; frp, Isera; oc, Isèra, ) is a landlocked department in the southeastern French region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.Rhône region (165) *a main coach station on Francfort Plaza * public bicycle sharing stations *some taxi and drop-off zones *a car rental parking lot *four large public car parks *main Lyon arteries (Cours Lafayette, Garibaldi street, Cours Gambetta, Thiers avenue and Vivier-Merle Boulevard) *4 tunnels easing urban flows and undergoing renovation (Vivier-Merle, Bonnel, Brotteaux and Servient) *major

and

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

highways, including A6, A7 and E15 "autoroutes" highways near Perrache and Lyon ring roads, in less than 20 minutes. *Central Lyon (historical

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

) by public transit, car or bike, in less than 10 minutes.

Education

La Part-Dieu hosts several private education schools, in particular the ISG and MBway

Business Schools A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, school of business administration, o ...

, as well as the

IPSA ''Ipsa'' is a genus of small or medium-sized sea snails, cowries, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.WoRMS (2010). ''Ipsa'' Jousseaume, 1884. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Ma ...

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aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...

and

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

) and Sup'Biotech (

biotechnologies Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

)

Engineering college Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional development, professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (Bachelor's degree, bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any ...

La Part-Dieu 2030

Presentation of the project

Since the 2010s, La Part-Dieu has been undergoing a major transformation, after Lyon Metropolis launched an ambitious project in 2014 to renew the district thanks to a collaboration between La Part-Dieu Publicly-Owned Local development corporation (SPL) and the AUC architecture firm. The whole project is totalling around €2.5 billion between public and private investments.

Main objectives

La Part-Dieu 2030 project aims at preserving the district's architectural heritage and upgrading it for the 21st century. Modernization will satisfy current

office space ''Office Space'' is a 1999 American black comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes the worklife of a typical 1990s software company, focusing on a handful of individuals weary of their jobs. It stars Ron Livingston, Jennifer ...

markets and spur economic development. Better integrated into the urban fabric and

transit system Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typica ...

, and with a strong focus on designing pleasurable residential and

public space A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads (including the pavement), public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to ...

s, the project promotes the contemporary French way of life, on a European level. Main objectives consist of : *restoring and preserving the 20th century architectural heritage by forcing all new developments, including Tour Incity, to rhyme with the historical context and follow the distinct La Part-Dieu style, that consists mostly of repetitive, retrofuturistic and mineral patterns from the 1960s and 1970s. *offering an increased and contemporary tertiary market by renovating old buildings and constructing a wider variety of facilities of improved tertiary, residential and collective spaces, that contribute to economic drive. *strengthening its role as a transit hub and entrance to the Metropolis, by offloading the railway station through a larger and more suitable design and by rendering the city more pedestrian-friendly through new public spaces and optimized means of transport. *creating a living district promoting the French way of life by introducing ground floor shops and services along roads with significant pedestrian flow and by encouraging leisure activities, cultural and sporting events for adults and children, every day of the week at any time.

Completed projects

*Office space **

**Silex 1 **Sky56 **The 107 **Deruelle **Aprilium 2 **Velum **Equinoxe **Terralta **Le Rephael **Carsat **Edison **Green **Crystallin *Cultural space **City and Department Archives (see landmarks) **Halles Paul Bocuse Carpark **Saint-Sacrement school *Residential space **Bricks **Sky Avenue **Brottier residence *Infrastructure **Garibaldi street **Place de Francfort **New car rental parking lot

Work in progress

*Multimodal Transport Hub **a railway station twice as large **L track addition **a new platform access route from Pompidou Avenue **a new Béraudier front gallery with commercial space and ticketing services directly connected to To-Lyon high-rise **a pedestrian area on Place Béraudier along with an underground transit hub aligned with shops, metro access and 1,500 bike spaces. Drop-off and parking lot zones will be located underneath it, next to a tunnel extension. *Buildings under construction **Tour To-Lyon will be an office, four-star hotel and services tower providing conference and trade shows, located beside the railway station and Béraudier Plaza, to be completed around 2023 by Dominique Perrault Architecture (170 m). It is currently under preparation, as hotels currently on site have been demolished. **La Part-Dieu shopping centre is undergoing renovations according to a design by

Winy Maas Wilhelmus "Winy" Maas (born 1959 in Schijndel) is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1993 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV. Education He completed his studies at the RHSTL Bosko ...

. Stated changes include the addition of large staircases to act as street extensions over the rooftop, which will be transformed into a green public space and offer views over the city. 1970s concrete-shell patterns will be repurposed over glass entrances and allow natural light to radiate inside the modernized interior spaces. More shops will be added. ** Silex2 is a contemporary 129-meter-tall extension crowned by a spire, leaned against an 80-meter-tall brutalist high-rise from the 1970s. It is part of La Part-Dieu's modernization plan, since Tour EDF will be repurposed. Má Architects designed these larger office floorspaces to satisfy office space demand, and will deliver them by 2020. **Émergence Lafayette residential high-rise **Orange Campus office headquarters *Urban works **Nelson Mandela plaza extension **Vivier-Merle Boulevard transformation **Underground air-cooling facility to power air-conditioning systems

Future developments

*Bouchut street beautification and extension.

Proposed projects

*Skyscraper projects : **Swiss Life 2 launched by Swiss Life, possibly by 2025 (200m). **Tour M + M launched by DCB International and designed by

Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...

, possibly by 2030 (215m). **Milan Plaza (according to the AUC plan) includes several residential high-rises around Place de Milan (200m). *High-rise projects : **Sou Fujimoto Atelier, Dream Paris and EXNDO have proposed a 50m high-rise design with office and residential space, street-level shops and green rooftops, in lieu of the former Caisse d'Épargne headquarters, thanks to its reused materials, right next to Tour Oxygène. *Infrastructure projects : **Métro E line extension to La Part-Dieu **Greater Lyon rail bypass (CFAL) to alievate pressure on La Part-Dieu's rail node **Underground railway station

Key figures

*Between 400 and 600 planted trees in public spaces by 2022 *30 hectares of public spaces and roads created or developed *200,000 m² of added equipped spaces dedicated to services, trade, leisure and hotel industries *A railway station twice as large *2,500 new bike spaces *2,200 housing units added *40,000 jobs added *200,000 m² of added or renovated office space in high-rises or low-rises *A flexible office space market, ranging from 50 to 50,000 m² *A vacancy rate below 3%, 250,000 m² of which are used or agreed *650,000 m² of added office space, bringing the total office space to 1,650,000 m²

References

{{coord, 45, 45, 40, N, 4, 51, 26, E, type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title 3rd arrondissement of Lyon Financial districts in France Economy of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Quarters of Lyon