The story holds that the President opted for Danish

The Museum of natural history of Toulouse is his Darling project. It allows him once again to exercise his talent: introducing of modern architecture in old frames. Thus, Jean-Paul Viguier likes to bring his vision to see heritage. "Create a modern object in a protected site prevents the downtowns of decline", it exposes.

This Harvard Graduate expert in architecture and urban composition ("urban design") uses his dual training in all its achievements. The first project which accounted for him is the Pavilion of the France in Seville for the universal exhibition of 1992. The command arrived at the end of his involvement in the programme of major works of the State desired by François Mitterrand in the 1980s. He had already been selected among six finalists architects held among 700 projects competition for the Opera Bastille and had also obtained the first prize, ex-aequo with Otto van Spreckelsen, for the Ark of the defence. The story holds that the President opted for Danish.

All these projects of the Republic embark it in other adventures. After the success of the France Pavilion, he starts following the rehabilitation of the site ecological and heritage of the pont du Gard, appropriately listed in the programme of major works of the Secretary of State at the time, Emile Biasini.

Then the operations are cycled through. In 1986, he won the order of the city of Paris, then under the tutelage of Jacques Chirac, the André-Citroën Garden, in tandem with Allain Provost, landscape architect and in association with Berger-Clément team. Together, they redraw the 15 hectares of the site of the former automobile plants to create an urban park in edge of river Seine west of the Eiffel Tower. "Americans envy this assemblage of gardens, fountains, games of water... that configure the art of living in the city in the 21st century", says Jean-Paul Viguier, who said: "in 1985, Paris stopped at the Mirabeau bridge." We have added a kilometre of place of life and made the River accessible to visitors. "Today, the parc André-Citroën is the only place in the South of the capital where you can see passing boats sitting on the lawn.

Mentioned for the angle of money with his project of industrial Hotel Métropole 19 Street of Aubervilliers in the 19th arrondissement, the architect is assigned the siege of France television in 1997, which completes, "unique chance" whispers, "its" sequence of construction along the river Seine.

"These projects, which may be no connection between them have to issue to continue to write the city." Jean-Paul Viguier is proud of the persistence of the idea of architecture which he develops one art, to one location to another. It does not loose. This stance earned him to be recognized, first in France where he worked on public buildings, private, and, soon, in different countries around the world. "Sofitel Water Tower" of Chicago (best building award AIA 2003) is an icon which is measured with the famous and mythical Tower John Hancock (SOM architects), in the temple of modern architecture. Called by the Marion Koogler McNay de San Antonio (Texas) Foundation, it will soon ask the first stone of a new wing of the McNay Museum of Art, backed with a Hispanic building built in 1929 by Atlee b. Ayres.

In the same vein, the project of building of offices, homes and businesses in construction for the Dutch insurer ING marks a new era in the heart of Budapest. Dressed "of a skirt of scales glass", it involved dance Vorosmarty square in the famous neighbourhood baroque and Art nouveau.

Referring to his first building of offices, the Atrium, Boulogne-Billancourt, he received command in 1986, Jean-Paul Viguier remembers: "It is the first time that I used about a vacuum materialized by a cube of 30 metres of edge which was to focus the energy of the building and gave it its name." Twenty years ago, this is a first. Later, France television resumed the same architectural gesture of creation around the "vacuum", backbone and engine of dynamic space. "It is not a fad of architect that this interior space to the life of the building where you can meet, give a receipt, or even a concert...". "He founded the identity of the building, exaggerate the activity" summarizes the architect. He almost forget to mention that he received in 1999 the "business week architectural record award" in New York to the AstraZeneca headquarters that he built in Rueil-Malmaison.

"Save the contents and the territory led me to build towers, one type of construction capable of generating the highest densities," ignites Jean-Paul Viguier in his belief that "resources are not unlimited". Professional attributes to architecture what Malraux said cinema: "an art but an industry."

A few tours in preparation

On its Board, the project of a building housing and shops on the parvis of the Cathedral of Rouen, a building housing street of the Convention in Paris and, precisely, a few tours in preparation in France and in the world. Tirelessly, Jean-Paul Viguier attaches to "buildings of course beautiful but also useful and sustainable so that men could live and develop their activities". He returned to the tenets of classical architecture treaties and supports foot to foot a genuine culture of the environment.