The Federation Française de Rugby’s new stadium project reached another exciting milestone this week, with the signing of the contract between the FFR and the developer and main contractor, Ibelys. The contract was signed at a ceremony in Paris by the President of the FFR, Pierre Camou, and BESIX Europe General Manager, Jean Polet.
At the conclusion of an extensive consultation period undertaken by the Paris 2024 Bid Committee, Populous and Egis, an international group offering engineering, project structuring and operations services, have been selected for the provision of technical assistance in the development of plans for thirty-eight Olympic and Paralympic venues for the Paris 2024 bid.
The scope of this partnership, in association with ISC, a sport and culture consulting agency, will include ensuring existing venues are ready for the scale and needs of Olympic and Paralympic events; as well as designing both new and temporary venues and facilities, allowing Paris 2024 to deliver successful and truly memorable Olympic and Paralympic Games.
With unique major events experience comprising involvement in thirteen Olympic and seven Paralympic Games, including Sydney 2000, London 2012, and Rio 2016, Populous are also the only firm to have designed three main Olympic stadiums.
Populous Senior Principal, Ben Vickery, said:
This is a great opportunity for Paris to showcase a beautiful international city and its proud sporting history. For Populous, it will be an exciting step on our Olympic Games journey, showcasing our expertise in designing experiences that can be enjoyed by millions of people, whether they’re at the events, soaking up the atmosphere in the host city or watching from around the world.
Populous’ event and overlay designs support cities from all around the world to host successful major international events. Their long-term design relationships include the NFL Super Bowl, the FIFA World Cup, Cricket and Rugby World Cups, as well as the inaugural 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. Populous’ work takes in the full design and delivery spectrum, from assisting bid teams with submissions, helping masterplan the major venues and facilities, to the design of the main stadium and hundreds of temporary venues needed to support modern Games.
Populous Principal, Francois Clement, said:
We truly believe that our knowledge and experience both of Olympic and Paralympic Games work and of working in France on the new stadium for Olympic Lyonnais will, together with Egis, help Paris to create an incredible event in 2024. We are very proud to be working with the Paris Bid team.
Nicolas Jachiet, Egis Chairman and CEO, said:
Our Group is proud to participate in this Olympic Bid adventure with our partner Populous. Our consulting teams will enthusiastically bring all their expertise and know-how in project management so that Paris could host the Olympics in 2024.
Egis is an international Group, with extensive experience in designing major sports complexes and sports events for many years. Thanks to the multiplicity of its skills and its cross specialisation process, Egis is now recognised as a major player in the engineering of stadiums.
Egis teams have been mobilised on major projects, such as the construction and/or renovation of most of the stadiums that will host – in less than 70 days – 2016 UEFA Euro Cup matches, including: Matmut-Atlantique stadium in Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne stadium, Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice, Velodrome stadium in Marseille, and Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille.
Outside of France, Egis is involved in several sports facilities, including the Stade du 5-Juillet and Baraki stadiums in Algiers, Algeria; the Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey; as well as stadiums in Marrakech and Tangiers in Morocco.
Image: Arc de Triomphe. Courtesy: Paris 2024/KSMP
