Why a Train Station Addition Has Parisians Outraged

“Absurd.” An “urban mistake.” And a “grave offense to transit users.”

French architects certainly haven’t minced their words in lining up to attack a planned redevelopment of Paris’ Gare du Nord station. Last week, 19 architects, including Pritzger-winner Jean Nouvel, published an open letter in Le Monde castigating France’s national state-owned railway company, SNCF, for its plans to expand the largest rail station in Paris, increasing its surface area by more than two-thirds with a new development featuring a shopping mall and offices. The project, dubbed StatioNord, is part of a slate of transportation improvements that will help Gare du Nord in its future role as a hub connecting venues for the 2024 Olympic Games. But the plan, the architects insist, would be inherently harmful to Paris’s patrimony and function as a steel-and-glass insult to rail users. Those are pretty strong words, but when you look closely at the project, they might be fair.