Hôtel de Ville

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

In the 1960s, the city of Grenoble seized the opportunity of the 1968 Winter Olympics to construct buildings meeting its needs. The town hall, installed since 1719 in the hôtel de Lesdiguières which had become too cramped, was to be installed in a new building that formed part of the new master urban planning scheme designed by Henry Bernard (1912-1994) as well as the facilities programme planned for the Olympics. The City called upon architect Maurice Novarina (1907-2002) already in charge of the construction of the Olympic Village and the press centre. With a team of renowned architects and designers, and in collaboration with Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) and Joseph-André Motte (1925-2013), he designed a monumental and functional space, with bespoke interior layout to which a large number of works of art contributed through the 1% arts scheme. The luxurious building was inaugurated on 18 December 1967 in the presence of the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Youth and Sports. In 2003, the town hall was awarded the label "20th Century Heritage", now "Remarkable Contemporary Architecture". In 2019, an arson attack destroyed the municipal council chamber. The city had a heritage diagnostic survey carried out in 2020 by the LR&A agency in order to begin reflection on the methodology to be adopted in order to reconcile the heritage transmission of these buildings and the requirements of compliance with standards relating to fire risk and ecological transition.

Description

Grenoble town hall is located on the edge of parc Paul Mistral, on boulevard Jean-Pain, close to the Perret tower and Olympic sports facilities. Its architecture is characterised by the opposition of two large volumes in reinforced concrete, with a plinth-block system: a low and horizontal plinth nicknamed the "galette", 90 metres long by 50 metres wide, containing the public areas and representation spaces arranged around a central patio; and a large vertical tower 40 metres high marked by the use of glass and aluminium on the façade - the curtain wall designed by Jean Prouvé, consisting of aluminium stiffeners whose spaces are filled with glass plates, and housing the offices and services. The building is constructed primarily from five materials: concrete, aluminium, glass, marble and wood, which appear throughout the building, with research, inventiveness and refinement, making reference to classical architectural vocabulary and brutalist aesthetics, and punctuated with works of art. The entrance porch, preceded by a monumental staircase, welcomes a mural mosaic by Alice Penalba. The central patio, whose floor is covered with a mosaic of marble tesserae created by Charles Gianferrari, is adorned at its centre with a granite fountain topped by a bronze by sculptor Etienne Hajdu. The reception room is decorated with an embossed and oxidised brass wall by Pierre Sabatier, and a tapestry by Raoul Ubac. The great entrance hall, situated under the great tower, houses the hollow reinforced concrete main beam, resting on pillars housing the lifts; on either side of this beam, crenellated slots along its entire length provide remarkable treatment of natural light. The treatment of the concrete surface is carried out with various smoothing patterns, as in the rest of the building and in particular opposite in the great hall of honour. In the latter stands the grand ceremonial staircase, link between the public space and reserved spaces, entirely in black marble, and illuminated during the day by peripheral natural light from the ceiling, and at night by spectacular chandeliers with 358 tubes of Murano glass; beneath the staircase is placed a sculpture by Emile Gilioli in Carrara marble. The wedding room is hung with a tapestry by Alfred Manessier, woven by Plasse-Lecaisne, and decorated with openwork metal partitions by Pierre Sabatier; Motte's furniture is still from the period. On the state floor, the wall covering is made of wood, the floor is in marble, and the furniture is also partly that designed by Motte. In the great tower, the office floors are still arranged with period-appropriate moveable partitions and finishes. The top floor consists of the former apartment of the Secretary General and offers a 360° panoramic view over Grenoble and its surroundings.