ANDRE DUMONT NEIGHBOURHOOD MUTATION

This chapter reveals the urban and architectural transformations of the André Dumont Neighbourhood in which the Kennedy ensemble took shape. It will present one of the biggest urban project of architectural, economical and cultural regeneration in Liège. The chapter will focus on the conceptual guidelines and then on the real mutations of the neighbourhood.

Two elements following the program for the modernisation of Liège are then at the origin of the reorganisation and restructuring of the André Dumont neighbourhood between 1958 and 1975: the reconstruction of the Boverie bridge and the new artery connecting West and East of Liège. Those two elements contribute to improve the life quality and the reduction of traffic in the area. This is why the reconstruction of the bridge and the Athénée Royal take place in the Ten works in five years program. “This neighbourhood still pays his toll to the war, it is high time to save it.”5 The authority took advantage of the situation by involving lots of destructions and expropriations in order to engage the urban modernisation. They do this by creating a new residential, administrative and commercial area with a cultural and intellectual hub; formed by updated institutions and new functions.

After many demands and complains, the authority finally initiates the construction of the new Pont de la Boverie in 1958. The plans are developed but the modernist architect Georges Dedoyard (1897-1988) who also designed two other bridges in Liège, more particularly the Pont des Arches (1947) and the Pont Albert 1er (1957). To reach the rue André Dumont on the left bank of the river Meuse, the Pont de la Boverie spans the road longing the water with twice two ramps to access the bridge form the river side. At the behest of Le Grand Liège, another hopper is integrated to the design on the right bank. The lines of the Boverie bridge reminds of the Arches bridge ones.

But according to Le Grand Liège : “The consequence of the bridge setting up is that the two islands siding the rue André Dumont wouldn’t be rapidly build and urbanised as suiting to a Liège entrance. There is a risk for the neighbourhood to remain abandoned for several years because we know how lasting the temporary solutions are. It is essential, at the foot of a modern bridge used by the international trafficking, not to find a disaster area, as a plague in the middle of the face, where life disappeared and commerces are impossible.”6

On Georges Dedoyard’s sketch with the straight-lined road to the Place St Paul, the idea of two towers on the two triangle shaped island surroundings of the bridge rises. But Jean Royer (1903-1981), in charge of the urbanisation of the neighbourhood decided to free one of those triangles to give more space to greenery.

The new Pont de la Boverie was unveiled in 1960 and renamed as the Kennedy’s bridge three years later in tribute to the president murdered in November of the same year.

In 1954, the first master plan for the André Dumont neighbourhood was build up to ensure the West-East road axis trough Liège. This project plans to extend the Pont de la Boverie axis with the rue André Dumont to the Place St Paul and connect them with the Boulevard d’Avroy. The expansion of several roads in the area to make room for cars and to build at the foot of the bridge two closed housing ensembles whose height is limited to 35m, was also planned. The master plan creates a lot of expropriations and destructions. Considered as too intrusive in the urban fabric of Liège, the project is abandoned and revised by Jean Royer in 1961.

Architect and urbanist, Jean Royer was the study director of architecture school and urbanist professor in Paris. He is reputed for his remarkable works in Bordeaux with the Mériadeck project and the Grand-Parc neighbourhood. From 1950, he started to play several political roles in Liège and realised few urban development plans. He started to work on the A. Dumont neighbourhood master plan in 1959 and proposed to find another connection point with the Boulevard d’Avroy. He proposed to create a new artery to join the bridge and the rue A. Dumont with the rue Bertholet and the Boulevard d’Avroy. This artery was named avenue Maurice Destenay in 1975, named after the mayer of Liège from 1963 until his death in 1973.

“Out of the Pont de la Boverie, the new boulevard, that will be planted, curves to reach the Boulevard d’Avroy at the rue Bertholet high. In the central part, the boulevard is inserted in between the Hospice du Verbois, clearing its facade, and the courtyard of the new Athénée Royal of which it allowed the monumental installation.”

The project gives a strong importance to greenery with the Grand-Séminaire garden in the triangle island longing the rue A. Dumont but also with the creation of a public park at the corner of the Hospice du Vertbois. On the other triangle island, Jean Royer introduces a tower with a height minimum of 113m on a two-level plinth. To close the perspective of the rue St Paul, a curved building follows the alignment of the new avenue to reach the new Athénée Royal. On the Place St Jacques side, a six levels block and an 11 levels tower will end the connection with the Boulevard d’Avroy.

The amount of expropriations in this second master plan is almost equal to the first one. In total, those expropriations cost 450 million of Belgian francs and will last almost ten years to succeed. These expropriations are managed by the acquisition committee, that is overworked by the working program on the highway and the new buildings to welcome the expropriated inhabitants last to be achieved.

In Jean Royer’s master plan, the Chiroux library is not affected by the modernisation of the neighbourhood. It is only in 1964 that Jean Lejeune expressed the idea to move the library, in his publication “L’avenir de Liège et les travaux publics”. This proposition implies to review a third time the master plan for the A. Dumont neighbourhood and reach a close version of the still existing situation.

In 1966, the updated master plan proposed to redefine the space in between the tower at the foot of the bridge and the Athénée Royal to fit to the design of the architects Jean Poskin & Henri Bonhomme. They are in charge of the urbanisation of the triangle island with the tower and to integrate the reconstruction of the Chiroux library on the island close by. The library and its surroundings are destroyed to form one big bloc facing the tower. It was named the Croisiers island following the name of the street in between. This block is designated to be a housing building with commerce on the ground floor. At the end of the volume, facing the avenue Maurice Destenay, the circular space is dedicated to a public area, becoming a cultural centre. The curved building imagined by Jean Royer disappears and a double footbridge links the two volumes together in order to reach the green area in between the cultural centre and the Athénée Royal (future Place des Carmes).

This third revision of the master plan also modified the high from 113m minimum to 160m maximum and the Grand-Séminaire garden function to a public sport area.

In 1989 and in 1999, the master plan was revised again to allow the construction of a gas station at the corner of the Grand-Séminaire garden and the modification of the park area next to the Hospice du Vertbois into a housing plot.

Simultaneously with the development of the avenue Maurice Destenay, the authority decided to modernise the neighbourhood with the aim of creating a cultural area with new institutions. They presented a plan based on four points to develop the housing and commercial functions but also to renew a vibrant intellectual life in the neighbourhood : The opening of the Grand-Séminaire gardens to the public and the creation of the public square next to the Hospice du Vertbois.

The transformation of the area in a cultural space with the combined efforts of the bargain state and the city of Liège. The state was in charge of the reconstruction and extension of the Athénée Royal. The city of Liège was responsible for the reconstruction and extension of the Chiroux library with the addition of a cultural centre. They took advantage of the invitation of an important liégeois investor, S.A. Solico, who proposed to build an important residential and commercial complex to integrate the library for the city in return of the cede of the plot. It was also possible to create, after the demolition of the Halles des Carmes, a new fine arts academy and high institute for architecture and urbanism, located just next to the new cultural centre.

The creation of a residential, commercial and administrative hub with the conception of two main complexes. The first was the Kennedy ensemble with a 25 levels tower for housing and two smaller towers for private companies (the SMAP and the Mutualité chrétienne). The second one is located in the corner formed by the avenue and the Place St Jaques where three volumes house 85 dwellings, a commercial area and a parking lot.

The rising of the housing capacity in the periphery of the neighbourhood, by permitting the construction of housing buildings on the Boulevard d’Avroy.

The preservation of the historical heritage monuments figures again in the program of the public works department. In 1959, the authority decided to restore St Jaques collegial that was in high danger of collapsing. Almost ten years where needed to secure and renovate the edifice.

The André Dumont neighbourhood strongly changes its profile during the modernist period. Three remarkable concrete ensembles rose up along a brand-new avenue that was connected with the periphery of Liège by the reconstruction of the Kennedy’s bridge.