Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo confirmed the city plans to follow through on a $305 million plan to renovate the Champs-Elysees.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday, Hidalgo said the first stage of the project will include the renovation of the Place de la Concorde before Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics and the rest of the update to the Champs-Elysees will begin in 2025.
"We will redo the Place de la Concorde before the Olympic Games, then the full length of the avenue afterward; it will be [another] extraordinary garden," Hidalgo said.
The plans, developed by architect Philippe Chiambaretta and his agency PCA-STREAM, would seek to reduce vehicle traffic by half, while providing wider sidewalks for pedestrians and "planted 'living rooms'" filled with greenery.
The eight-lane, 1.2-mile Champs-Elysees has been dubbed "the most beautiful avenue in the world" and PCA-STREAM said that two-thirds of pedestrian traffic in the area comes from tourists.
The Champs-Elysees committee, which works to promote and develop the area, praised Hidalgo's commitment to taking on the project.
"The mythical avenue has lost its splendor over the last 30 years," the committee said. "It has been progressively abandoned by Parisians and has suffered several crises: the yellow vest [demonstrations], strikes, the pandemic, economic crisis etc."
