The Grand Quartz project is (re)launched
Published on 21 February 2024
As part of one of the components of the Stimulus Plan, relating to the energy renovation of government buildings, the €18.5m project for the overall renovation of the Paris site, submitted by École des Mines de Paris, has been selected by the Government.
This is excellent news for the School, which has not had a major investment project on Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris for around 100 years, with the construction of the library
said Vincent Laflèche, Director General of the School.
From 2021, this will mean funding the first stage of the Grand Quartz project, which includes a major energy component, with the replacement of windows and investment in the energy system and its management. It also means the renovation and expansion of our large lecture theatre L108-L118 (see below) and the near doubling of the surface area of the Saint-Jacques building.
As early as April 2020, the School decided that the pandemic and the crisis would result in a recovery plan (effectively launched in September…) and that it was important to have an eligible project as part of the Grand Quartz project, i.e. one that was ready to be launched. The Fondation Mines Paris agreed to fund €200k worth of studies – which was a risky gamble at the time – so that by summer 2020 the projects would be “ready to apply for planning permission”.
With the support of PSL, in 2021 we will continue to defend the successive stages of the Grand Quartz within the framework of the CPER (State-Region planning contract)
promised the school’s director.
It should be remembered that the ambition for a school ready to take on all the challenges of the 21st century was born back in 2016. The Grand Quartz project, already imagined but not yet formalised, received funding from PSL for a feasibility study entrusted to the Établissement public d’aménagement universitaire de la région Île-de-France (EPAURIF). Subsequently included in the strategic plan adopted in June 2017, the dream project began to take shape.