Parc de La Seille – METZ (Moselle)

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Completion year 2003
Contracting Authority Municipality of Metz
Mission Creating an urban park featuring an advanced environmental approach
Project Management Team Landscape architects and designers Jacques Coulon (mandated agent), Landscape architects and designers Laure Planchais, Ecological engineers Sinbio, Civil works engineers Ingerop, Light designers Coup d’Eclat
Surface area 20 hectares (excluding the Seille River)
Budget €6m exc. VAT
Ratio €30 exc. VAT per m²

The Parc de La Seille was intended to be a space widely open to the skies, highlighting the topographical features of the banks of the river that runs through it by forming links with the surrounding existing and future urban landscape. Significant levelling has been performed to open up the Seille River which had until then been channelled, as well as shaping the hills that link the park to the future slab-mounted Amphitheatre district. A vast prairie stretches at the foot of the hills, which is used to host various activities.
The park has a number of purposes:

  • “Reclaiming” the riverside environment
  • Regulating the Seille River’s hydrography
  • Collecting water for the future Amphitheatre district
  • Forming a key area in the city, suitable for hosting sports and cultural events.

By increasing the areas liable to flooding, and giving the Seille River an extra arm, the park solves all hydrological issues and gains an alluvial setting. The water gardens provide a contrast with the dry hill gardens, encouraging some diversification among the possible biotopes in the area.
As a more urban feature, the esplanade hosts those sports and cultural events that are more spectacular. It starts out inside the Amphitheatre district by the Metz Centre Pompidou, and ends up as a platform overlooking the Seille River, thereby accentuating the bond between the district and the river.

Feedback (last visit in 2014)

  • A giant golden sculpture vaguely resembling a toothbrush handle and drawn by Philippe Stark (my research tells me that it was a gift from Japan’s NHK TV) has been installed on top of the big hillock!
  • The beautiful tiered flowerbed that used to link the esplanade to the Seille River was destroyed during the creation of the footbridge. That is a pity, for we had planned another location in the initial project.
  • Somewhat commonplace children’s games were added at a later stage, for the initial project did not call for any.
  • The plane trees on the plateau are beginning to look good, and overall the park vegetation is growing well and it is being looked after in accordance with the initial intent.
  • Avenue Louis Le Débonnaire, which was a conditional lot, was not landscaped in the end.