Parc Andre Citroen

During my stay in France there was little time to visit landscape projects, however I did make some exceptions, one being a visit to Parc Andre Citroen. This is a contemporary park on the banks of the River Seine by Alain Provost and Gilles Clement and one which I remember visiting some years ago on a family holiday to the city.

The two large greenhouses at the northern end of the sight were the feature I remembered best, and these still provided an obvious and beautiful focal point to the site. Other features however were somewhat less impressive- the many many water features for example, of which almost all had clearly been out of use for some time. Even the greenhouses provided disappointment on closer inspection- they were locked out of use and one of the two was completely empty.

Despite these disappointments the park has a lot to offer and appears to be well used. The large central lawn area is a wonderful space (with or without the giant helium balloon which currently occupies it and offers visitors birds eye views of the city). There are also a series of tranquil themed gardens.
It is such a shame that the park has been subject to a lack of maintenance- maybe the design was too ambitions and contained too much water initially which has made costs spiral. Either way there must surely be some cost effective solutions to bring this park back up to the standard it should be. These issues have contributed to my decision to look at this park in detail as part of my Management Plans module at University this year.