Althouse: "The President of the Republic became convinced of the need to restore Notre-Dame de Paris as closely as possible to its last complete state, coherent and well-known..."

July 9, 2020

"The President of the Republic became convinced of the need to restore Notre-Dame de Paris as closely as possible to its last complete state, coherent and well-known..."

"... while betting on sustainable development in the choice of materials and site management" the French government announced today, the Washington Post reports.

After the fire destroyed the roof and the spire, architects were asked to propose the rebuilding, and there was some possibility of modernizing the design — possibly doing something with glass, like the I.M. Pei pyramid that became part of the Louvre. That is not going to happen. Good.

20 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Traditionalists Uber alles..; 7/9/20, 6:01 PM
wild chicken said...: Yeah I wouldn't go near that fugly Pei-amid either.

What were they thinking.; 7/9/20, 6:20 PM
William said...: Not much support for making it The Temple of Reason, but there was some talk of making it the Paris branch of the Obama Library. I'm glad to hear that they voted it down. Perhaps, though, they might want to opt for an up to date sprinkler system, even if it destroys some of the sight lines.; 7/9/20, 6:22 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: why not plywood with 'inspirational' murals on them?; 7/9/20, 6:27 PM
Joe Smith said...: Thank God.

Of course, had they decided to modernize I would have liked the Property Brothers to have done the job.; 7/9/20, 6:29 PM
Narr said...: Another good call from Macron; no shiny turds this time.

Narr
Sacre bleu!; 7/9/20, 6:44 PM
Michael K said...: My wife and I attended Mass in Notre Dame about 35 years ago. The ushers place wood panels around the congregation so tourists can still walk around the outer part of the cathedral without disturbing the service. She was so impressed that she, a former Job's Daughter, wanted to convert.; 7/9/20, 6:49 PM
n.n said...: There is something to be said for the preservation of the old, and the old-fashioned.; 7/9/20, 6:51 PM
cubanbob said...: Macron is right. Rebuild as closely as possible.; 7/9/20, 6:51 PM
KellyM said...: Doubly Good. This should not be considered an opportunity by some upstart architect to make a name for himself/herself by coming up with some design that's lauded by those in the club but hated by the rest of us.

Case in point: The Frank Gehry designed Stata Center at MIT. I worked on the campus the year after it opened. The building was drafty, poorly lit, the brick paving stones along the outside could never be fully cleared of ice and snow in the winter, and to top it all off, the ramp to the underground parking was at such a steep grade that melting ice/snow would drip off the edge of the overhang, and freeze solid just at the spot where the automatic entrance/exit barrier sat. You can't believe the number of times in the winter when a driver would be unable to stop and plow right through the pole, causing damage all around.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/MIT's_Stata_Center.jpg/1200px-MIT's_Stata_Center.jpg; 7/9/20, 6:52 PM
Birkel said...: Good.
The history should be preserved.

What good was Charles the Hammer?; 7/9/20, 7:02 PM
rhhardin said...: I suspect they were slave owners anyway.; 7/9/20, 7:17 PM
Sebastian said...: Notre Dame -- wasn't she Jewish or something?; 7/9/20, 8:00 PM
Narr said...: The Gehry-designed Science Library is another shiny turd.

Dysfunction follows form.

Narr
I should try to remember that one; 7/9/20, 8:29 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: There is still enough of a current of quasi-conservative post-Gaullist sentiment in the Macronian party that if EM had attempted a 'modernization' of Notre-Dame he would have faced serious opposition from his own people (in addition to a firestorm on the Right, secular and Catholic). He is a puling opportunist but not a complete fool.; 7/9/20, 8:44 PM
Zach said...: Well, the first sign of progress is admitting you have a problem.; 7/9/20, 8:53 PM
Tom T. said...: It would still be interesting to hear what caused the fire. Since the determination immediately afterwards that it was not terrorism, have we heard anything further?; 7/9/20, 11:29 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Damn it, I was going to make a joke about how it should be plywood and murals- load bearing murals.

To this day I still think the World Trade Center should have been rebuilt just as it had been, but one floor higher. Talk about big fuck you.; 7/9/20, 11:34 PM
Chris said...: Really, if they are interested in doing this correctly, they will install on the roof a giant B L M in bright neon constantly flashing. Only then can we as human beings make any real progress.; 7/10/20, 1:20 PM
ColoradoDude said...: Cynicism suggests Macron reads polls ... and found a large majority of French people wanted to respect their glorious past by restoring the site to its centuries-long image.; 7/10/20, 5:22 PM