Start of Project
1986
Size (total) 110 ha
Size Gare TGV Lille
Europe
400 x 15 m
Cost of infrastructure for
rerouting TGV
FF 800,000,000
(app. € 122,000,000
Cost Lille Grand Palais
FF 430,000,000
(app. € 66,000,000)
Completion Lille Grand
Palais
1994
+
Euralille, France
When France, Belgium, the Netherlands,
and Germany originally decided to
jointly develop the North European Train
a Grande Vitesse (TGV) network in 1987,
the Brussels – Paris TGV line was sup-
posed to bypass Lille with a junction sta-
tion serving the Channel Tunnel on the
outskirts of the city. Yet, local and re-
gional authorities believed that an inner-
city TGV station could stimulate the re-
generation of Lille as old-industrial city.
This vision was further stimulated by
French laws passed in the early 1980s
that promoted decentralized decision-
making and redefined the role of state
and local authorities, empowering the
latter with new responsibilities on the ur-
ban level. Moreover, the original Franco-
British agreement to built the Channel
Tunnel was concluded and signed in the
Lille town hall in 1986 where former
Mayor Pierre Mauroy received President
Mitterrand and Prime Minister Thatcher
granting the mayor even more influence
in the planned development.
As an ideal site already existed – Lille’s
central station close to the old town and
the Grande Place flanked a stretch of un-
developed land in military ownership of
which 70 hectare could readily be made
available – local and regional representa-
tives of
the Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing-
Villeneuve d'Ascq area and its neighbor-
ing communities in Belgium started under
the leadership of Lille Mayor Mauroy an
extensive lobbying campaign for Eu-
ralille.
In 1987, the city was able to secure the
location for the TGV interchange station
and appointed Rem Koolhaas as master
planner and chief architect in 1988.
Moreover, the Euralille “Societe d'econo-
mie mixte” w