According to Le Dauphine, famous Italian Architect Renzo Piano will lead the reconstruction project of the Grands Montets installations partially ravaged by a fire in 2018.
Renzo Piano to design the new Grands Montets
According to Le Dauphine, the famous Italian builder has given his consent to the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc.
The 82-years old architect was born into a family of builders and is famous worldwide for his talent and his works.
Renzo Piano's style has been called "high-tech" and bold "postmodernism" and among his famous works are the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016).
Lognan station has burned to ashes
The major fire that broke on 11 September 2018 at the Lognan Cable Car left behind disastrous damage.
The Grands Montets cable car starts at the small village of Argentière and leads to the middle station Lognan (1,972 m or 6,470 ft) before continuing to the Grands Montets mountain station at 3,295 m (10,810 ft). The destruction of the mid-station meant both lower and upper sections cannot currently be used.
Indeed, for the time being, the top of the Grands Montets can only be accessed by ski touring. However, not everyone will be able to enjoy the top of the Grands Montets in the near future, as it is is a strenuous high mountain route that requires very experienced ski skills.
According to snow-forecast.com, the CEO of Compagnie du Mont-Blanc, Mathieu Deschavanne, said in May 2019 that there would be no fast decisions and that he thought it would be at least three years before the old lift was working again or a new one installed.
"Some parts of the lift could be reused in theory, but the cost would probably be greater than that of a new build. And we would need to find a builder who agrees to do the restoration work and to take responsibility", declared Mathieu Deschavanne in May 2019.
