In Paris, the Louvre post office turns into a piece of town

After the shell, a few handfuls of workers are still carrying out the last finishing touches before the gradual arrival of future tenants.

Owned by the La Poste group, the building will be rented out at the end of the work to a multitude of users: 5-star hotel, social housing, police station, brasserie, day nursery, shops ... On the top floor, a terrace bar will offer a breathtaking view of the center of Paris.

"The different tenants finish their development work (...) depending on each one, it takes more or less time", explains Camille Gehin, during the visit of the construction site, director of projects of Poste Immo, real estate subsidiary of the public group .

"But the challenge is for the post to open in January 2022," she adds.

Some 140 million euros were needed to restructure the building, imagined from its creation by the architect Julien Guadet in 1886 as a "transformable" building.

Behind its freestone facade, the characteristic building of the Third Republic conceals an entirely load-bearing metal framework, conducive to transformation.

This Eiffel-type frame makes it possible in particular to release large volumes, like the first two floors and their 9-meter high ceilings.

The building is now spread over nine levels (four floors, two basements, two mezzanines and a terrace) for a total of 32.000 m2 of floor space.

"One of the complexities was digging a second level of basement," says Ms. Gehin. Work on this new underground floor, dedicated to receiving and delivering packages, was delayed by the discovery of lead pollution.

"Conceptual shops"

"A postal hotel (...) is by definition a temporary building, in any case transformable", explained, visionary, Julien Guadet in 1888, well before the emergence of digital and the drop in mail volume.

This building "is a tool. (...) It will last as long as it corresponds to the industrial needs to be satisfied", he already wrote.

More than 120 years later, the reconversion project won by architect Dominique Perrault in 2012 is a continuation of this philosophy.

Work on the lighting, available in masts, chandeliers and neon lights, will highlight the moldings and ironwork details of the building, and of its 13 new businesses.

If the names of the future tenants are still kept secret, the Post Office wishes to welcome a dozen of fashion boutiques, "fooding" and a few "concept stores", taking advantage of the privileged location close to the Halles.

The historic post office has been preserved, "not just for the symbol" but to "continue to provide the postal service" in the neighborhood, says Ms. Gehin.

"It is natural for us that this very emblematic post office which has existed since 1888 finds its place in the new architectural project", indicates Marie-Frédérique Naud, Deputy Director General of the La Poste Network.

"We want to make it a showcase for our innovation and service projects in the heart of Paris," she insists.

A popular destination for Parisians on the last day of tax returns, the rue du Louvre post office, open 7 days a week including at night, allowed latecomers to send mail until late at night, "the stamp of the post office as proof ".

But the opening hours of the future post office have not yet been decided. "It is being considered", specified the director of the projects of Poste Immo.

The original architecture of the office has in any case been preserved: from the peristyle and its two massive clocks, to its interior courtyard - which originally housed horses - and its white brick vaults.

This courtyard will be open to the public, the building being designed as a piece of town that can be crossed.