The Mellon Forum for Research on the Urban Environment welcomes Princeton-Mellon Fellow Joseph Heathcott for a presentation titled, Paris Remade: Architecture, Planning, and the Post-Industrial Imaginary.

In the 1970s, Parisians had to confront the increasing loss of industry and the erosion of the working-class city. In 1971, the last of the old market pavilions at Les Halles fell to the wrecking ball. Suddenly, Parisians had to confront the erosion of the once great working class city. Far from a natural process, however, the deindustrialization of the capital constituted a core policy of the French State. This talk considers how architects, planners, and urban designers responded to these transformations, using the built environment to remake Paris through the construction of a post-industrial imaginary.

Respondent: M. Christine Boyer, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Architecture and Urbanism; Director, Undergraduate Urban Studies Certificate Program