Abandoned Paris Metro Stations, Reborn as Nightclubs and Public Pools
In a city whose sewers attract tourists, it’s no surprise that a mayoral candidate is proposing to turn abandoned subway stations into art galleries, nightclubs, restaurants, and pools.
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a center-right candidate for mayor of Paris and former environment minister, has unveiled a series of plans to turn the legendary “ghost stations” of the Paris Metro into underground oases.
She’s enlisted the help of architects Manal Rachdi of OXO Associates and Nicolas Laisné to create renderings of the stations, repurposed as sleek spaces to display art, open restaurants, or create parks.
“To swim in the metro seems like a crazy dream, but it could soon come true,” OXO Architects says in a statement. “Turning a former metro station into a swimming pool or a gymnasium could be a way to compensate for the lack of sports and leisure facilities in some areas.”
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/02/paris-subway-remodels/?cid=co18880364
Artist conception:
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At the turn of the century, it carried a portion of the famed Erie Canal, which helped nickname Rochester as being known as 'The Flour City'
For a period of the mid-century, it also carried the light rail system that connected downtown Rochester to outlying communities before being decommissioned.
Several of our esteemed local politicians in government have been pushing to fill this space in with a rammed slurry in order to cut back on annual maintenance costs to the city. Portions of the system have already been filled.
I believe that it would be a travesty to see this (almost) final piece of history destroyed and not conserved into a community asset and public space. I've been into this area on many occasions and when I wander this expanse, my mind is constantly imagining the possibilities that this space affords the community, however lays in horrible disrepair and abandonment.
Kudos to the effort in Paris to attempt an effort to revitalize these underutilized spaces...