The demolition permit for 12, rue de Tournon suspended by legal authorities

23/7/08 — Heritage — Paris — At 12, rue de Tournon in Paris, the construction of two elevators meant eliminating historical staircases although they are part of a group of buildings listed in the supplementary inventory of the Monuments historiques (see article in French on La Tribune de l’Art). Despite this protection, despite the negative opinions of the Architect of the Batiments de France, the Directeur du patrimoine, Michel Clement had overridden these measures and authorized the construction project.

The Administrative Court of Appeals of Paris has just suspended the demolition permit (let us remember that a building permit had not even been issued). The demolition work—which has already started!—will stop until a permanent ruling has been handed down. The Court stated notably that “the work authorized by the contentious demolition permit began on 16 May 2008 and may bring about practically irreversible consequences for the site.”

We had asked the question, along with Alexandre Gady, whether “the Directeur du patrimoine was still worthy of carrying out his duties?” It being another in a long line of similar cases which we pointed out in our article at the time, this ruling supplies additional information on which to base our answer.