They won… but too late.
The building permit is canceled and declared illegal, but the building is already built.
Worse, it is inhabited!
This gruesome location is set on rue Méchain (14th arrondissement), where the only collective housing building rises, designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945), an emblematic architect of the modern movement.
A little jewel of the heritage of the 1920s, that its facades listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments (ISTMH) had not however saved from a joint real estate project led by the developer Covéa-Immobilier, a subsidiary of the group of MMA insurance.
Legal time was longer than that of the builders
Mobilized since August 2019 against this project, which residents and admirers of the “Mallet-Stevens heritage” considered both “banal”, “degrading” and too massive, the Safeguarding Collective of 7, rue Méchain and the Monts 14 association have both won and lost.
They won by obtaining the declaration of illegality and the cancellation of the building permit granted at the end of 2018, against all expectations with the favorable opinion of the Architect of Buildings of France.
But they lost against the legal time, longer this time than that of the builders.
7, rue Méchain (14th).
This emblematic building from the 1930s is listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments but threatened by a neighboring construction./LP/Elodie Soulié
Today, the building of ten apartments, backing onto the Mallet-Stevens building, also overlooks it from a good floor.
A height of about 3 m, the shadow of which condemns several openings, penalizes the garden and the cachet of a place open once a year to visitors, who could admire the helical staircase with a Briare enamel banister, and the glass roof signed Louis Barillet, another master of these roaring and modern twenties.
"We are going to have to attack civilians to obtain the demolition"
Despite a petition of 1,800 signatures addressed to the contracting authority but also to the Ministry of Culture and to the town hall of Paris, despite a legal action, the project was finally completed last year.
It took longer for the court decision to fall with a crash as exciting as it is bitter and problematic, for the opponents of the project.
"It is not all to have successfully countered this permit, or to have obtained the classification as a historical monument, much more protective," confirms the president of Monts 14, Patrice Maire.
We are going to have to attack civilians and therefore conduct a new trial to obtain the demolition ”.
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A realistic approach?
The defenders of the place seem in any case determined.
“It will be complicated, especially since the building is now inhabited,” admits Patrice Maire.
But the place is exceptional enough for lawyers to work there, especially after this new classification which confirms the uniqueness of Mallet-Stevens' work.
The license is definitely lost for MMA.
The decision of the administrative court will not also give rise to an appeal, made impossible by the new legislation in force for this type of appeal.
Covéa Immobilier would be forced to go to the Court of Cassation, an approach in which opponents do not believe, given the clarity of the decision of the administrative court.
The builder will appeal
Nothing is less certain, however.
“Covéa Immobilier built in accordance with a building permit issued in due form by the City of Paris, which will undoubtedly appeal this court decision.
Covéa for its part will appeal ", announces the builder, who has been defending since the start of this showdown" a home improvement operation ", carried out taking into account" the exceptional character of the building, in under the instruction of the permit obtained a favorable opinion from the Architect of Buildings of France ”.
