Bordeaux Cultural Centre gets go-ahead

After nine months of deliberations, the location has been selected for the Wine Cultural Centre in Bordeaux.

Mayor Alain Juppé is today presenting the final plans to the region’s stakeholders, and is due to announce the 10,000m2, €50 million project will be built in the Bassins a Flot, the port area of the city to the north of Chartrons, the traditional wine merchants district.

Philippe Massol, who is leading the project along with UGC president Sylvie Cazes, told decanter.com, ‘we hesitated over the location, because this is currently a long way from the traditional, UNESCO tourist centre of the city, but it is a future key quarter.’

‘All the big building companies having projects here, and it is right next to the new Bacalan-Bastide bridge. Both should open around the same time, in 2014.’

A competition for designing the building will run in 2010, with the first bricks being laid in 2011.

Inside the building, 6,000m2 will be dedicated to permanent and temporary cultural exhibits, and a further 2,000m2 to commerce in the form of restaurants, shops and bars.

‘We want it to be a must-see site from an architectural point of view, as well as a true meeting point for the city,’ Massol said.

‘We are aware of the problems similar projects have had around the world, but we have the great advantage of building this in Bordeaux, the world capital of wine.

‘The city already receives two million visitors per year, and a large proportion of those come for the wine. We hope to attract 400,000 a year,’ he added.

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Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux