After an initial attempt a few weeks ago, the Sulzer parking lot was finally inaugurated yesterday. This parking occupies a total area of 2,600 m² with a high-value location, near Old Nice, the Promenade des Anglais, and Place Masséna. It is underground with 6 basement levels (455 spaces) and a landscaped public space has been developed on the surface by the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur: the Esplanade Pompidou.
The creation of the Promenade du Paillon (Coulée Verte), which will ensure connections between the National Theatre of Nice and the sea and between Old Nice and the 19th-century districts, required the demolition of the suspended garden structures, including the bus station parking lot.
In this context, a parking lot was planned on the site located between Rue Saint François de Paule, Rue Sulzer, and Quai des Etats-Unis.
To integrate the Sulzer parking lot into the global requalification program for Quai des Etats-Unis, the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur developed a quality space dedicated to pedestrians. Thus, the Esplanade Pompidou was created.
The surface developments of the Esplanade Pompidou offer a new living space near the sea with 1,900m² of green spaces, including 3,500 plants from 25 different species, 36 palm trees of 4 different species, a dozen benches modeled like those of the Promenade du Paillon, and lampposts matching those on Rue Saint-François-de-Paule.
The selected palms were chosen for their slender trunks and light foliage.
These planting lines frame the main path and integrate with the “9 oblique lines” — a work by Bernard Venet, which structures the space like a beacon on a backdrop of plant waves…
In addition, an honorary plaque will be unveiled formally naming “the Esplanade Pompidou.”
A link between the Promenade des Anglais and the Old Town, the forecourt is level with Quai des Etats-Unis and above Rue Saint-François-de-Paule.
The development of this space thus meets the pedestrianization program of the upper slab of the underground parking with a cost of €1,034,000 excluding tax (including the development of the public space and green areas).
Following the traffic experiment starting Monday, November 4, 2013, and the lack of inconvenience caused by the closure of the South roadway and the two-way traffic implementation on the North roadway, the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur decided to proceed with the development works on the South roadway and sidewalk of Quai des Etats Unis between the Phocéens intersection and the Gassin passage.
