A few barriers, a basket and signs displaying a demolition permit granted by the City of Paris... Since this Tuesday, residents of rue d'Ulm (5th arrondissement) and heritage lovers who have been mobilizing for months to save the Pavilion Sources from the Institut Curie are waiting. Even worry.
However, one of the first strong decisions of the new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati (ex-LR), was to announce that this historic building was going to be moved "stone by stone", and not destroyed as planned. a project to expand the Institute itself. But the doubt was rekindled this Tuesday.
The arrival of construction equipment made heritage defenders fear the demolition of the site. LP/EJ
Indeed, along the 40 m of barriers installed in the street by a specialized company, the motif mentioned on the signs in the municipal decree made the defenders of the site where Marie Curie worked shudder. “Description of the intervention: demolition”, can we read on the authorization to occupy the public domain issued by the City following a request dating back to the beginning of November 2023, i.e. before the former Minister of Culture, Rima Adbul Malak, does not suspend the destruction of the building at the beginning of January.
According to our information, this work would only be demolition in name. It would rather be a decontamination of the site by a company specializing in radioactivity. The site will be monitored by the Nuclear Safety Agency (ASN) and will apply protocols similar to those for asbestos removal. It was she who had mapped the (slightly) radioactive points distributed in the small building still surrounded by high barriers.
Also read: Radioactive and uninteresting? In Paris, the battle for the Marie Curie Sources pavilion deciphered
A construction site under high protection which should begin in the coming days and must extend over two months, maximum until the end of May as specified in the municipal authorization. No demolition by stealth or force, therefore, as some defenders of the small building, over which the two busts of Pierre and Marie Curie may have feared, may have feared.
Expected for mid-March, the results of the studies for moving the Pavillon des Sources are still not known. A complex project mired in controversy which will also see some of its actors change, with the end of the mandate of President Thierry Philip and members of the management of the Institut Curie these days.