Cheval Blanc La Samaritaine
Paris (FR)
Cheval Blanc La Samaritaine
Paris (FR)
year of implementation
2021
category
On the seventh floor of La Samaritaine, the historic Paris department store that reopened in 2021 after a bold and innovative renovation, Wirtz International designed an exclusive roof garden for the five-star Cheval Blanc hotel: an oasis of calm above a busy city.
La Samaritaine was once the largest department store in Paris. It closed in 2005 for safety reasons and stood empty for years. The renovated complex gathers old and new buildings across two blocks between the Quai du Louvre and the Rue de Rivoli, beside the Seine, and now holds a department store, several high-end restaurants, a hotel of 72 rooms, ninety-six social housing units, offices and a crèche. The official inauguration took place in June 2021.
Large trees in raised peat-block planters give soft, dappled shade. Flowering shrubs and perennials carry the colour, and clipped hedges divide the terrace into smaller, more intimate rooms, so that the garden does not read as one open deck but as a sequence of places. High-quality workmanship, durable materials and a well-considered selection of plants are what set this roof garden apart.
A roof asks more of a garden than open ground does: the depth of the build-up, the weight the structure will carry, and the wind and drought at that height all decide what is possible. Within those limits the garden is a place to eat, to drink and to meet, with a wide view over the rooftops of Paris and the Seine below.
