Michelin inaugurates 20 million euro reception building at Clermont-Ferrand Michelin HQ

Florent Menegaux, chair of the Michelin Group and Olivier Bianchi, Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand, and chair of Clermont Auvergne Métropole, along with a number of key stakeholders inaugurated the new reception building at Michelin’s Clermont-Ferrand head office as well as “a completely redesigned Place des Carmes” on 13 September 2021.

With a budget of 20 million euros features a 160m-long frontage, is glazed extensively and is protected by wooden awnings. The new Michelin reception building is described as “environmentally friendly” and is designed to both remain faithful to company’s history and illustrate “the group’s desire to overcome the challenges of the 21st century”. Designed by a team from Construire, Encore Heureux and BASE (and with project management entrusted to Léon Grosse), 85 per cent of the companies that worked on the project are local.

Fully renovated and giving priority to pedestrians and eco-friendly means of transport, the new Place des Carmes is equal to the project’s ambitions. It has become a user-friendly 2.5-hectare shared space, allowing inhabitants, factory staff, visitors from across the globe and also the district’s storekeepers to enjoy planted public spaces that are calm and comfortable.

Fulfilment of the works on the Place des Carmes was led by the town planning and landscaping agency Plan B, assisted by Ingerop for the infrastructure works and JML for the fountains, with the companies Colas and Sanchez (roads & utility services and concrete), Entreprise Électrique and Spie (lighting), Eiffage Génie Civil (civil engineering and road structures), Pallandre (green spaces) and Déal Hydraulique (fountains). The cost of these public improvement works amounts to 11.8 million euros. A second phase of works is scheduled in order to fully transform the district.

“The new Place des Carmes heralds the Clermont-Ferrand of tomorrow: a town at the cutting edge of ecological and energy transition issues, attentive to shared living and an example in terms of quality of life. It is a shop window to what we want for our city, for its inhabitants and for future generations. More than a public space, this square is now an essential user-friendly area,” Olivier Bianchi, Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand, and chair of Clermont Auvergne Métropole commented.