Havas Headquarters

Abstract

This interesting project for a site on the Seine River near Paris was undertaken by Valode & Pistre for the US real estate developer Hines. Hines is well known for the quality of their projects. Denis Valode emphasizes that Hines agreed to all of the architects’ proposals, even when extra cost was involved. An existing building, the Coty perfume factory built by Jean Barrot in 1939, thus became an integral part of their design. The modern style brick, concrete and glass structure could have been demolished, but Valode & Pistre chose to retain it. “We had what I would call a ‘Chateau de Versailles’ instinct,” says Jean Pistre, explaining that it was King Louis XIV. who insisted on keeping the original Louis XIII. hunting pavilion that is at the heart of the much larger new castle. The riverside façade of the Coty factory was thus restored and the architects added 35,000 m² of new buildings behind it on the deep site. Just as in the case of the royal castle at Versailles, a smaller, existing building became the core to which newer structures were added. The one disadvantage of the site was that a hotel of modest architectural quality had already been built in the rear corner of the lot. Although the buildings added by Valode & Pistre are quite large, the architects intentionally made them quite discreet on the street running perpendicularly to the Coty façade, using brick to emphasize the link with the older building and drawing the bulk of the structures back from the street.