2nd arrondissement of Lyon, France

The 2nd arrondissement of Lyon is one of nine districts of Lyon. It is located at the southern end of the peninsula formed by the Saône and the Rhône. The district constitutes the very center of Lyon, by its geographical position, its commercial dynamism and the number of monuments. Created on March 24, 1852, the 2nd arrondissement stretches from rue Neuve in the north to the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône in the south.

The 2nd arrondissement is one of the shopping districts of Lyon. The city’s main shopping artery, rue de la République, is located in the arrondissement. In this arrondissement is also the Place Bellecour, the main square of the city, as well as the Gare de Lyon-Perrache, the second largest station in the city of Lyon. The price of real estate is high. The arrondissement is considered one of the most upscale in the city, home to the Lyonnaise bourgeoisie and where many luxury boutiques and jewelry stores are located.

History
A very old history, as the excavations carried out as the construction works continue to confirm… and as evidenced by the many museums and monuments. Celtic trade first, then the Roman military presence made it possible to clean up and develop the peninsula to make it a district which is at the same time residential, artisanal and commercial. A triple vocation still relevant today.

In the 16th century, a place of arms was erected in the Bellecour sector, which until then was swampy. Lyon was then a major political center and an economic capital. La Presqu’île is a pioneer in publishing and printing.

In the 18th century, the engineer Perrache imagined an enlargement of the peninsula by relying on the alluvial islands of the Rhône that remained available. The surface of the peninsula is thus doubled. Under the Second Empire, the prefect VAISSE declined the Haussmannian influence, giving the center its current appearance. In 1850, all the quays of the Saône and the Rhône were in place.

Few changes affected the district from 1910 to 1950, apart from the destruction of the Hospice de la Charité, which freed up the space of what is now Place Antonin Poncet. In the 1970s, Louis PRADEL, Mayor of Lyon, decided to develop the Perrache exchange center, a real motorway junction in the city center.

Today, work on the major development project of the Confluent is progressing. The objective is to reclaim industrial wastelands and enhance the banks of the Rhône and the Saône. First projects planned for 2008-2009: a leisure center, a nautical beach and the development of nearly 5 km of quays. The Musée des Confluences and the rehabilitation of the station market and prisons will follow.

Historical heritage
Marked by its history, it is an integral part of the site classified world heritage by UNESCO in 1998. The contrast of its territory makes it attractive from a historical point of view, but also from a cultural and economic point of view.

Hotel-Dieu of Lyon
The Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon is one of the largest buildings of the peninsula of Lyon. It is built on the western edge of the Rhône, in the Bellecour district. It is not the first Lyon hospital (its first buildings are attested in 1184). Its role as a hospital was assigned to it by another establishment, created in 542. Notre-Dame de Lyon hospital, located in Saint Paul, successively called Notre-Dame du Pont, Notre-Dame de la Graneterie, Notre-Dame de la Saunerie and Saint-Eloi Hospital and which disappeared towards the end of the 15th century century.

In 2007, it was decided to transfer its services to other establishments in order to be able to rent its exceptional building and site. From 2010 to 2015, the building remained unused, and major work over about three years for hotel and museum use and also to accommodate the city of gastronomy. The whole building was classified as a historical monument by decree on November 21, 2011.

Stock Exchange Palace
The Palais de la Bourse or palace of Commerce is a building in the 2nd district of Lyon. It currently houses the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon. It is bordered by the Place des Cordeliers to the south, the Place de la Bourse to the north, the rue de la République to the west and the rue de la Bourse to the east. The building has been classified as a historical monument since the February 10, 1994

The building measures 56.6 meters by 64.5 meters. It is made up of four corner pavilions and a central room, called Salle de la Corbeille, which occupies its entire height. The decoration of the building, both in its facades and its interior parts reflects the destination of the building: statues of Justice, Temperance, Agriculture, Commerce and Industry. The two facades to the north and to the south are richly decorated with numerous entablatures, balconies and columns. Most of the paintings on the interior ceilings are the work of artists from Lyon such as Antoine Claude Ponthus-Cinier or Jean-Baptiste Beuchot.

The exterior statue at the foot of the staircase overlooking the Place des Cordeliers, an allegory where Saône and Rhône personified join their arms to point to the future, is a white marble work by sculptor André Vermare and dates from 1905.

Religious heritage

Chapel of the Trinity of Lyon
The Trinity Chapel, also known as the Great Chapel, is a building in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. This building of Trinity College (now Ampere High School) in particular housed in xviii th century the first astronomical observatory in the city of Lyon, before that of Saint-Genis-Laval is created.

Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon
The Saint-Nizier church is a church in the city of Lyon, located Place Saint-Nizier in the heart of the Presqu’île, between Place des Terreaux and Place des Jacobins, in the Cordeliers district. It is one of the most important places of worship in the capital of Gaul, both in terms of seniority and prestige as well as architectural and monumental visibility.

Dedicated to Nizier, one of the bishops of Lyon, the building has been documented since the High Middle Ages. After the year 1000, while the political and economic importance of the city asserted itself, that of Saint-Nizier grew, which was not without creating tensions with the main Lyon church, the Saint-Jean cathedral., and in particular with its canonical chapter.

Completely rebuilt in the xiv th and xv th centuries in style Gothic, the church is the subject of a classification as historical monuments by the 1840 list.

Saint-Martin d’Ainay Basilica
The Basilica of Saint-Martin d’Ainay is an ancient church abbey style Romanesque (xii th century) located in the district of Ainay, on the peninsula of Lyon. It was elevated to the rank of basilica in 1905. The basilica is the subject of a classification as historical monuments by the list of 1840.

Cultural space

The Célestins Theater
Rich with 200 years of history, the Théâtre des Célestins has retained all the majesty of its original architecture dating from 1881: the richly decorated public foyer, the atrium with harmonious volumes, the red and gold room make it a exceptional Italian theater in the Rhône-Alpes region. Its mission, of public service, is to be at the same time “a conservatory of the language” and “a laboratory of the forms”. It is therefore a question of transmitting the classical heritage which constitutes the foundation of universal culture and of promoting, by making discover contemporary authors will complete this heritage.

Since 2001, the Théâtre des Célestins has been a signatory of the Cultural Cooperation Charter, a working document aimed at associative, social, educational, cultural and artistic actors. The Cultural Cooperation Charter is, in Lyon, the axis of mobilization of the great cultural facilities on the cultural aspect of the policy of the City. It provides a framework for the various solidarity commitments of the institutions towards the territories and people in difficulty.

Museum of printing and graphic communication
The Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication is one of the museums in Lyon whose main missions are to enrich, conserve, document and promote the book and graphic heritage to various audiences. Two banners mark the entrance to the Hôtel de la Couronne, headquarters of the Printing Museum, located at 13 rue de la Poulaillerie.

Tissue Museum
The Textile Museum is located in the 2nd district of Lyon, at n o 34 rue de la Charité. In particular, it has one of the most important collections of fabrics and textiles in the world, the richest of this type in France. These two distinct but complementary museums can be visited with the same ticket.

The Tissue Museum is made up of two separate museums labeled Museums of France. They are accommodated in two adjoining mansions in the center of Lyon: the Hôtel de Villeroy for fabrics and the Hôtel de Lacroix-Laval for the decorative arts. The collection of textiles is one of the most beautiful in the world.

Today, the Musée des Tissus has one of the richest textile collections in the world, retracing some 4,000 years of fabric and silk history. It brings together more than 2.5 million textile from the xxv th century BC. AD until 2006, from Pharaonic Egypt to the present day. The museum’s collections, which have grown considerably through donations, bequests and acquisitions, are divided into two main areas: the East and the West.

The tapestries Copts, the tissues of the Persian Sassanid, fabrics Byzantines, Muslims, Chinese and Japanese, as well as a collection carpet leading underscore the evolution of Eastern and Far Eastern civilizations.

Museum of Confluences
The Musée des Confluences is a museum of natural history, anthropology, societies and civilizations located in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Heir to the Guimet Natural History Museum in Lyon, it is housed in a deconstructivist style building of the Coop Himmelb (l) au de 2014 architecture firm, in the La Confluence district, on the southern tip of the Peninsula of Lyon, at the confluence of the Rhône and theSaône (2nd arrondissement of Lyon).

It takes over its collections and aims to complete its collection through acquisitions. It is the subject of deposits and loans from museums and various institutions (art and culture museums, botanical gardens, foundations, religious congregations, etc.) for its temporary and permanent exhibition spaces. The museum has an activity oriented towards scenography (cooperation with musical theaters and theaters) and began that of publisher of books (novels around some famous objects from its collection in collaboration with authors of literary texts or drawings and photographs).

The declared project is that of entertaining and artistic pedagogy, “the confluences of knowledge”, at the same time as an architectural signal for the city gate. It is associated with the crossing of the two rivers and put together in urban areas with bridges. The “confluence” garden connects the walks established on the banks of the Saône to those of the Rhône in the new way of urbanism of the ecosystem city. This museum is managed by the agglomeration which has become the metropolis of Lyon with a department structure.

The museum is 190 meters long, 90 wide and 41 meters high. Its architectural philosophy is the same as that defined by Wolf D. Prize of the Coop Himmelb (l) agency for the Shang sha Opera-Center-Ville (International Conference Center) in Dalian, China (2008-2012). But in Lyon, the architect is not constrained by the fact of including with a room a space (performance hall). The designer uses large overhangs that do not make it a “do-it-yourself” construction.

Streets, squares, green spaces

Place Bellecour
The Place Bellecour is the biggest square of the city of Lyon (62,000 m 2) and the fifth largest square in France after the Quinconces in Bordeaux (126,000 m 2), the Place de la Concorde in Paris (86,400 m 2), the Cours Léopold and place Carnot in Nancy (76,400 m 2) and the town hall square in Le Havre (70,000 m 2). It is often presented rectangular but it is a trapezoidal square with a size of 300 meters by 220/190 meters, it is larger than the Constitution Square of Mexico City (230 × 192 m) and the Red Square of Moscow (330 × 70 m). It is also the largest pedestrian square in Europe, the places previously mentioned being able to accommodate vehicles, unlike Place Bellecour.

In its center is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. Another statue, representing The Little Prince and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is located at the southwestern end of the square.

Two pavilions are located on the square and house the services of the Tourist Office, as well as a small children’s park, a fountain, two breweries and periodically a Ferris wheel (during the end of year celebrations).

Rue de la République
The Republic Street is a road located in the first and second district of Lyon. It is the main shopping street in the city. In 2010, it is placed at 99 th rank of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. This site is served by the Bellecour, Cordeliers and Hôtel de Ville – Louis Pradel metro stations. The location of rue de la République, in the heart of the city, and the large number of shops that dot it make it one of the busiest streets in Lyon, day and night. It is nicknamed by apocope the rue de la Ré.

Rue du Président-Édouard-Herriot
The street-President Edouard Herriot, known locally as the name Rue Edouard Herriot, is one of the most important shopping streets of the peninsula of Lyon, in France. It is the link between the two most famous squares in the city, Place Bellecour in the south, and Place des Terreaux in the north. Its northern part is in the 1 st district (even numbers 2 to 42 and numbers odd of 1 to 25), but the majority of the street is in the 2nd district (even numbers from 44 to 106 and odd numbers 27 to 105). In Lyon, it is renowned for its concentration of luxury stores, such as Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Dior, Longchamp, Hermès. It constitutes, with the rue de la République to the east, the rue de Brest to the west and the rue Victor-Hugo to the south, the commercial heart of the city. In its southern part, the street crosses the Place des Jacobins, a luxury hotspot in Lyon with Sonia Rykiel, Rolex and Escada outlets in particular.

Celestins Square
The Place des Célestins is a square in the 2nd district of Lyon, in France. It exists in its present form since the beginning of the xix th century and is named after the religious of Celestines settled there from 1407 to 1778. Its last redevelopment was carried out between 1993 and 1996 following the construction of a parking lot under the square. Magnolias have been planted and bushes too (at the ends of the square). In the center, there is a telescope that allows you to observe the parking lot and a work by Daniel Buren. It is a huge mirror. On the square, there are also two water basins in front of the Célestins theater. As for the floor, it was made with wooden slabs (new ones were installed in 2016).

Place des Cordeliers
The Place des Cordeliers is a public space in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon (France), in the center of the district of the Cordeliers. Founded in the xvi th century, it is profoundly altered in the xix th century.

Place des Jacobins
The Jacobins square is a square located in the district of Bellecour in 2nd district of the city of Lyon. Most buildings of the square are wealthy, with five decorated floors; and built circa 1850. The No. 1 was built in 1860 after plans by Frédéric Ginioz. The No. 4 of the Place des Jacobins is the painter Paul Borel’s house, conducted by architect Pierre Bossan in 1863. To the east, there is a large house, and in front, three small older ones. To the north, the building has slate roofs and, to the south-west, an eleven-storey building with rounded balconies

Place Antonin-Poncet
The Antonin-Poncet square is a square in the 2nd district of Lyon, close to the Place Bellecour. The square is located at the border of the Bellecour and Ainay districts. On Place Antonin Poncet is the bell tower of the old Charité hospital. The hospital, built in 1622, was destroyed in 1934. Only the bell tower (built in 1667) has been preserved. At the time, it was the second largest hospital in Lyon after the Hôtel Dieu. It was actually more of a hospice than a hospital.

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Place Carnot
The Place Carnot is a site of 2nd district of the city of Lyon, in the district of Ainay. This site is served by the Perrache metro station. Place Carnot is next to Lyon-Perrache station. Bordered by rue de Condé, it is accessed by rue Victor-Hugo, rue Henri-IV and rue Auguste-Comte. To the south, it follows the course of Verdun and the Perrache trade center. Passages allow you to reach the Sainte-Blandine district and the Cours Charlemagne, either through the hall of Perrache station, or through the tunnel below. “Traffic is English to the north (left traffic), and anti-clockwise to go from the cours de Verdun Récamier to the course of Verdun Gensoul, that is to say from the Rhône at the Saône.”

Charlemagne course
The Charlemagne course is a broad central street in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, and through the neighborhoods Perrache and Confluence. It is named in reference to Charlemagne, who came several times to Lyon. In addition, Bishop Leidrade represented the emperor in the city and did a great job of reconstruction. Cours Charlemagne begins at Place des Archives, just south of the vaults of the Perrache interchange. It ends on the Perrache quay, which overlooks the Pasteur bridge. Today 33 meters wide, the course accommodates the double-track tramway, two cycle lanes, two sidewalks and up to two traffic lanes, in both directions. In addition, as part of the Confluence rehabilitation project, of which the Cours Charlemagne marks the birth, it should undergo an improvement in its characteristics.

There are shops of all kinds in the street (food, restaurants, clothes, flowers, etc.), the Charlemagne ice rink installed since 1969, the Sainte-Blandine parish, a billiard room, an association offering language trips, a club gymnastics and basketball, several banks, among others. The street is also bordered by a double row of plane trees.

Verdun course
The cours de Verdun is a wide avenue in the highway 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. Since 1972, it has hosted the junction between the A6 and A7 motorways, which cross the Presqu’île. The Cours de Verdun is located on the Presqu’île de Lyon between the districts of Ainay and Perrache. It connects the quays of the left bank of the Saône (quai Maréchal-Joffre and quai Rambaud) to the quays of the right bank of the Rhône (quai du Docteur-Gailleton and quai Perrache). From west to east, it extends the Kitchener-Marchand bridge and is extended by the Gallieni bridge. The Place Carnot is established in the middle, to the north.

Rue Victor-Hugo
The Rue Victor Hugo, formerly called Bourbon Street is a pedestrian street 2nd arrondissement of Lyon in the neighborhood Peninsula. It is renowned for being one of the best commercial arteries in Lyon. Orientation north – south, it connects Place Bellecour and Place Carnot. The street of the Republic, constitutes, beyond the Place Bellecour, its natural extension, thus drawing one of the biggest pedestrian artery of Europe. There are mainly cafes, restaurants, shops, services and hotels in rue Victor-Hugo. The street has, in its center, a wooded pedestrian square, the Place Ampère which, along with the street itself, gave the name to the metro station it serves, Ampère – Victor Hugo. The street is mostly lined with buildings of the xix th century with three to six floors. There are also two old houses on the corners with rue Sainte-Hélène and rue Jarente. Most of the doors have beautiful carvings and decorations: lion heads, snakes, etc.

Jules-Courmont quay
The Jules Courmont dock is a dock on the right bank of the Rhone in the 2nd district of Lyon, in France. The long façade of the Hôtel Dieu, between the Pont de la Guillotière and the Pont Wilson, covers a large part of the quay. It gives an incomparable overview of the Guillotière bridge or, opposite, of the Victor-Augagneur quay. You can admire the large dome, the domes of the various buildings and you can access the interior courtyards through several entrances overlooking the quay. The year 2010 marks a radical change for this set of buildings and the Jules-Courmont quay, since the university hospital center has been closed.

Communities
The city of Lyon is one of three French municipalities currently divided into municipal districts (with Paris and Marseille). The law No.82-1169 of December 31, 1982 relating to the administrative organization of Paris, Lyon, Marseille and public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation, known as the PLM Law after the names of the cities concerned, is the French law which has established the particular administrative status applicable in particular to the city of Lyon. It was adopted in the context of the decentralization law (known as the Deferre Law) of March 2, 1982.

In this context, the PLM law transformed the former district town halls into structures elected at the local level. However, they are not fully-fledged town halls, and in particular do not levy taxes, but distribute the credits delegated to them by the Lyon Town Hall. However, they manage certain municipal facilities, and are consulted by the City of Lyon before certain decisions of local interest.

Two thousand years of history have left their successive imprints on the landscape of the city. The heritage of the 2nd arrondissement reflects different eras and partly tells the story of Lyon. It is an integral part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

Les Cordeliers district
Les Cordeliers is one of the central districts of the city of Lyon (France) and is north of 2nd district of Lyon. The center of the district is the Place des Cordeliers around which the main monuments of the district are organized. It is located between the Terreaux district to the north and the Bellecour district to the south.

Remarkable buildings

On the Place des Cordeliers:
The Grand Bazar: one of the department stores in central Lyon, demolished to make way for a glass and metal building and reopened in September 2007 in the Monoprix and H&M brands;
Department stores of Cordeliers: it was opened in 1895 after the construction of the rue du Président-Herriot; taken over by Galeries Lafayette in 1919, it was considerably enlarged in 1924-1925; after 1999, it was occupied by the Saturn sign, then the Boulanger sign after 2011;
Saint-Bonaventure Church;
Stock Exchange Palace;

Around Place des Cordeliers:
Saint-Nizier Church;
Bank headquarters on rue de la République: historic building of Crédit Lyonnais, Banque de France;
Arteries and shopping streets nearby: rue de la République, Tupine, Ferrandière, Grenette, Édouard-Herriot, Mercière and Place des Jacobins;
The Lafayette Bridge.

Bellecour district
Bellecour is a neighborhood of 2nd district of the city of Lyon in the center of the peninsula. It stretches between Place Bellecour and Place des Jacobins and is bounded by the Cordeliers district to the north and the Ainay district to the south. It is a lively district made up of many shops, restaurants and bars, several cinemas including a Pathé, several fast food chains, a Fnac, and several luxury shops which are mainly concentrated in the Golden Square(in rue Édouard-Herriot).

Places and monuments

Place Bellecour
Located at the southern limit of the Bellecour district, Place Bellecour is the most important place in Lyon and the fifth largest in France with a size of 310 by 200 meters, or approximately 62,000 m 2. Its dimensions exceed those of the Constitution Square in Mexico City (230 by 192 meters) and those of the Red Square in Moscow (330 by 70 meters) . It is also the largest pedestrian square in Europe, vehicles circulate around the square.

In the center of the square is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. West side, a statue of Saint-Exupéryseated in front of the Little Prince was posed in 2000 for the centenary of the birth of the aviator and writer from Lyon. This square is located between the Rhône and the Saône rivers and in the second arrondissement of Lyon. It constitutes the zero kilometer point: all distances are counted from this point. It is also at an altitude of reference for the city, that is to say 170 meters. From this square start three major axes of the Presqu’Île, two of which are pedestrianized: the rue de la République which leads to the Town Hall and the Opera, the rue Victor-Hugo which leads to the Perrache district and the rue du Président Édouard-Herriot which leads to Place des Terreaux.

Place des Jacobins
The square is surrounded by buildings essentially five stories from the middle of the xix th century, rather beautiful and luxurious. Place des Jacobins is located in the heart of the peninsula, in the north of the Bellecour district, it is partly circular and opens widely onto many streets: Gasparin, Emile Zola, Fabre, Port du Temple, from the old Prefecture, Mercière, Brest, Herriot, Tournes, Childebert and again Herriot to the south. Traffic is anti-clockwise with a taxi stand around the fountain. The most beautiful piece of this square is the fountain which occupies the center, dated 1878. Since 2004, a plaque indicates the history of the square. In 2013, the fountain was restored and the ground rearranged while rounded off with benches and trees, in the process, several facades were cleaned.

Hôtel-Dieu
It is one of the largest buildings on the Peninsula. It is built on the western edge of the Rhône. Its facade is built on plans by Jacques Germain Soufflot, it runs along the Rhône over a length of 375 m. If the central part ends in 1748, it is not until the 19th century to see the completion of the North and South wings. The architects Durant and Tissot, then the architect of the Dubuisson de Christôt hospitals will complete this work, in accordance with Soufflot’s plans.

The first hospital in Lyon (the first buildings are attested in 1184), the Hôtel-Dieu, transformed then rebuilt, is the only establishment in Lyon that has remained in operation until today. At the beginning of xxi th century building maintenance is too heavy for the body responsible for the hospital which, moreover, is unsuitable for the practice of modern medicine. The services are therefore transferred to other hospitals in greater Lyon. The site is closed and awaiting reconversion. An ambitious project was selected and work began.

In 2007, it was decided to transfer its services to other establishments in order to be able to sell its exceptional building and site. From 2010 to 2015, the building remained unused, and major works planned over about three years for hotel and museum use and also to accommodate the city of gastronomy in 2017. The entire building has been classified as a historic monument. by decree on November 21, 2011.

Sainte-Blandine district
Sainte-Blandine is a district located on the peninsula in the 2nd district of the city of Lyon. Sainte-Blandine is located between the districts of Perrache to the north and La Confluence to the south. Located south of Perrache station, the Sainte-Blandine district constitutes the northern part of the Confluence district. It is located on the edge of the Cours Charlemagne near Place Carnot, Place Bellecour and all the bustling shopping center of Lyon. Its name comes from the Sainte-Blandine church.

Ainay district
Ainay is a district of the peninsula of Lyon, in the 2nd district, southern district of Bellecour and its place and north of Perrache station.

Its main monument is the Romanesque basilica of Saint-Martin d’Ainay, also present at the Museum of Fabrics and Decorative Arts in Lyon, its main axis is the pedestrian street Victor-Hugo. The buildings in this bourgeois district were largely built under the Restoration.

The district hosts the town hall of the 2 nd arrondissement, many shops around the pedestrian axis formed by the rue Victor-Hugo. The head office of the Descours & Cabaud trading group is also located in this district, rue du Général-Plessier. In addition, the district is home to many art galleries.

Perrache district
Perrache is a southern historic part of the peninsula in Lyon today southern sector of the 2nd district of the city. The entire center of Perrache exchange (built in 1960), the Perrache station (xix th century), and its strategic location in the city of Lyon, at the junction of the A6 and A7, are the Perrache district, one of the main centers of exchange, or pole of exchanges, of the Lyon metropolitan area and of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Long devoted to the wholesale market, factories and warehouses for the North of the Presqu’île, the sector to the south of the Perrache district has been, since the 1990s, the subject of a vast urban planning operation, the Confluence, aimed at to replace the industrial and logistical fabric with residential, shopping and leisure areas.

Saint-Paul and Saint-Joseph prisons, closed in 2009, have been transformed. The site preserves old elements, classified as Historical Monuments, combined with modern buildings, now housing the campus of the Catholic Faculty, previously located on Place Bellecour.

The Sainte-Blandine district is the subject of a redevelopment, towards more green spaces and sustainable development (housing BBC for residential, arborisation of streets and clearances, etc.).

La Confluence district
Confluence or simply Confluence is the new South Sector 2nd district of Lyon, at the southern end of the peninsula of Lyon, near the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone. Coming from a ZAC since the end of the 1990s, the district is doomed to profound changes.

The Confluence Project
The objective of the Confluence project is to double the area of downtown Lyon, by urbanizing the area. It is the work of the mayor of Lyon Raymond Barre who launched the idea in 1995 by creating the Lyon-Confluence mission. An international definition competition was launched in 1997 and won by the MBM team (Thierry Melot, Oriol Bohigas and Catherine Mosbach), which took charge of the study contract which led to the development of the first master plan for the operation. presented to the public in 1999.

This master plan offers a thirty-year vision and provides for the long-term opening up of the peninsula through strong infrastructure measures: downgrading of the A7 to an urban boulevard along the Rhône, creation of the highway bypass west of Lyon, transformation of the Gare de Lyon-Perrache and creation of north-south urban continuity by creating a viaduct for the railway bundle, demolition of the exchange center to restore the space of the Cours de Verdun, change of the railway bundle of the line from Moret – Veneux-les-Sablons to Lyon-Perrache crossing by viaduct, extension of the tramway and the metro, creation of an urban park in the south of the peninsula, creation of the archives place south of the station, etc. This long-term vision is the support of a phased project in several short-term urban operations, linked and programmed sequentially.

Raymond Barre’s state of health might not have allowed him to run for a second term as mayor or president of the urban community, even if he had always indicated that he wanted to serve only one term (see his book of conversations The experience of power); the election of Gérard Collomb in 2001 led to the ousting of the MBM team in favor of the town planner François Grether and the landscape architect Michel Desvigne originally responsible for taking over the strategy of the initial project applied to its first phase.

The developer is the Lyon Urban Community. The completion of the transaction necessitates the creation of a mixed economy company, SEM Confluence, created inJuly 1999to promote and carry out the operation. First chaired by Raymond Barre, it is then chaired by Gérard Collomb, new mayor and president of the urban community since 2001 and headed by Jean-Pierre Gallet. The SEM was transformed in 2007 into the Lyon Confluence local public development company (SPLA); in 2012, SPLA became SPL (local public company). After the retirement of Mr. Gallet in 2014, Pierre Joutard was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

The new project notably provides for a vast housing and office program, a leisure and shopping center created by Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés which covers 150 hectares, a nautical basin connected to the Saône, a museum on the site from the tip of the Presqu’île, with the Rhône department, in place of the departmental bowling alley in the Saône park; the total opening up becomes partial, and with a renovation of the existing. The headquarters of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is also built there.

The architects and town planners of the project are for the housing, in particular Lipsky + Rollet architectes, Manuelle Gautrand, Massimiliano Fuksas, MVRDV – Winy Maas and for the offices, among others, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Jakob-Mac Farlane, Rudy Ricciotti, Odile Decq. Z Architecture is rehabilitating Sucrière as well as the Port-Rambaud harbor master’s office.

The headquarters of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council is carried out by Christian de Portzamparc. The museum, known as the Musée des Confluences, designed by the Austrian architectural firm Coop Himmelb (l) au, has been under construction sinceOctober 2006 before being stopped in 2007, to be taken over by Vinci in April 2010; it opens to the public the December 20, 2014. Injanuary 2015, the Urban Community (Le Grand Lyon) becoming Metropolis, it takes over all the departmental infrastructures located on its territory, including therefore the museum.

The project also plans to open up the district by building heavy infrastructure connecting it to the Gerland district and to Perrache station. A first extension of the T1 tramway is inaugurated inSeptember 2005, from Perrache station to rue Montrochet, a second extension took place in February 2014to Debourg station. Four bridges over the Rhône and the Saône are also planned: the Pont des Girondins overlooking rue des Girondins in Gerland, the Raymond Barre bridge between the Musée des Confluences and the Parc des Berges, and a “cross modes-soft” by two footbridges, the first on the Rhône and the second on the Saône. On the other hand, the removal of the A7 motorway awaits the western motorway bypass, and the drilling of new vaults under Perrache is only partially planned for the 2014-2020 mandate.

In 2011, Greater Lyon and the Japanese para-governmental agency Nedo, responsible for supporting research and development in environmental technologies, launched the implementation of an intelligent energy network demonstrator (smart community). The demonstrator project consists of the construction of 3 buildings on the P island (last island to be built along the nautical basin), the deployment of a fleet of electric vehicles in car-sharing, the installation of energy- boxes to assist residents in controlling their energy consumption and creating a community management system for energy audits. The sub-project, estimated at 50 million euros, is led by Toshiba. La Confluence is recognized as an eco-district by the French government, a sustainable district by the WWF, and has been awarded the European Concerto label for the low energy consumption of buildings.

Companies such as GL Events and Euronews established their world headquarters in the district in 2014. The first phase ending with the Denuzière district, at the end of the development, the second phase can begin, on the site of the old “market-station”, called the “Quartier du Marché”, then the “Quartier du Champ” or “du Campo”.

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