Page 30 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 9

by boat. Accordingly, the lakeside terminal was built north-east of businesses, the collection of water from Lake Bret for industrial use managers of the Beau-Rivage Palace and the Angleterre and the Quite apart from private interests, this was a conflict between
the castle, midway between Ouchy’s two main types of activity. and the management of warehouses in the Flon Valley, where the owner of the boarding school then occupying what is now the two different notions of urban planning: one focused on impressive
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It was to trigger a construction boom between the station and funicular’s upper end station was located. He also owned a summer Hôtel Résidence. In the autumn of 1893 the committee got visual effect, the other preferring the picturesque. The town council
the shores of the lake and, by the end of the nineteenth century, residence to the east of the Beau-Rivage Palace built in 1866-68 together with the Lausanne Development Association to draw up created a third project, borrowing aspects of the first two. However,
Ouchy was no longer a little village on the outskirts of the town to a plan by the Geneva architect Jacques-Louis Brocher. In 1884, a plan for the quay. Twenty-nine metres long and jutting out into in November 1895, the council opted for the first plan after some
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but part of the town itself. In the area surrounding the village, two he bought the castle which the canton had attempted to sell on the lake, it consisted of two straight sections adorned with four lively debate and impressive oratory, such as that of Councillor
very different types of building were to appear on each side of the numerous occasions. This raised fears among local residents that semicircular belvederes, culminating in a roundabout encircling Haller: ‘There are people for whom evenly spaced trees, symmetrical lines
railway line with modest, working-class dwellings on the eastern the tower was about to disappear. With the support of the local the Haldimand tower, a mock Roman ruin built in 1831. and neatly executed works of art have more appeal than the unpredictability
side, where building would continue into the 1930s, and hotels authorities, they had already voiced their concerns in a petition The following autumn, when the local authority studied the and picturesque irregularity of nature itself. Such people will certainly be
and villas to the west. to the cantonal government in 1873. The cantonal government proposal, the development association appealed for subscriptions satisfied. The long, straight line of the parapet, broken at regular intervals
The tourist infrastructure improved between 1880 and 1882 responded by securing an undertaking from Mercier to ‘retain from ‘all those wishing to see the beautification of the town, all those who by a few protrusions, the product of the none-too-fertile imagination of the
with the planting of the English garden south-west of the castle. This the external aspect, or silhouette, of the tower, in remembrance of several wish the present unsatisfactory path to be replaced by a quay worthy of a authors of the project, will give them great pleasure. Imagine: a kilometre of
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recreational space, part of which extended into the lake, was created centuries’. During demolition work, which was overseen by an town of 35,000 souls […] who wish to react against the prejudiced view granite parapet, what an interesting and varied view of the lake that will be!
thanks to the generosity of a founder member of sio, Édouard archaeologist, remains of the old episcopal palace, including a tracery that nothing in Lausanne is done stylishly, promptly or on a grand scale.’ 20 Instead of the charming, curved line we have at present, a line that is almost
Dapples. The landing stage, originally in front of the gardens of the window, were uncovered. Rebuilding took from 1888 to 1893. The hope was that the new development would add to the straight! The authors of the project must have had a vision. They pictured to
Beau-Rivage Palace, was now moved to the far end (fig. 6). This The architect Francis Isoz set the new building on the foundations appeal of Lausanne, which was having to compete with other themselves the present shore, stripped of its fields and its trees and adorned
meant that hotel guests from the Angleterre and Beau-Rivage who of the old Gothic structure whose style he echoed in his own towns along the Lake Geneva riviera. ‘Like Montreux and Vevey, with fine buildings, hotels, boarding houses and private residences. They
wished to take a boat were obliged to walk along the quay in front design. The various parts of the building were arranged around we should do everything we can to attract outsiders to settle in the town. thought they were in Geneva, Nice, Zurich or Lucerne and completely
of the castle where goods were still being unloaded. This new state the courtyard overlooked by the tower, which was preserved but Sheltered as it is from the north wind, with the developments taking place lost sight of the fact that Lausanne is situated not on the edge of the lake,
of affairs made it essential to build a proper commercial port, the modernised. A spiral staircase and a lift led to the seventh and top now and likely to continue, with its incomparable and constant view, its but high above on its three hills, below its cathedral and surrounding its
need for which had been recognised in proposals put forward in storey which originally housed a restaurant commanding superb lively port and the immediate proximity of a town such as Lausanne university and its future post office. Yes, in front of a series of buildings, this
the late 1870s. It also coincided with the decision by the steamer views of the town and lake through arcades set on colonnettes (offering numerous resources not found in other towns), the neighbourhood quay would be in its rightful place, but east of Ouchy it is an absurdity.
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operator, Compagnie générale de navigation (cgn), founded in carved into each face of the tower. The lower storeys featured a of Ouchy is in a good position to attract a population of this kind, Instead of embellishing the place, you will certainly spoil it.’
1873 following the merger of the three largest companies serving wide variety of windows, while the medieval window discovered provided that it offers the same amenities that constitute the appeal of the In fact, it was the financial argument that tipped the balance
the lake, to move its workshops from Morges to Lausanne. The during demolition was reconstructed and placed on the first floor aforementioned places, namely broad, level promenades that are well shaded in favour of the initial project. Because the promenade was straight
prospect of this flourishing company setting up in the town and on the courtyard side. and carefully maintained, of the kind completely lacking at present, thus it constituted a cantonal road and qualified, therefore, for continual
creating large numbers of jobs persuaded the Lausanne authorities When the Château d’Ouchy opened for business as a hotel preventing further expansion.’ However, owners of properties along government subsidies. Work proceeded rapidly and the quay was
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to erect barriers to protect the western quay on which the company in 1893, the question of building an embankment between the the future quay were unimpressed by such ‘grandiose’ plans which, inaugurated on 21 July 1901. It was lit by twenty candelabra-style
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intended to build its shipyards. The port took some ten years to Beau-Rivage Palace and the mouth of the River Vuachère was a they said, ‘would be justified in a city where new neighbourhoods were street lamps, Lausanne’s very first public lighting by electricity (fig. 9).
build and was finally completed in 1896 (fig. 7). preoccupation. Running along the edge of the lake and past several to be created along the water’s edge and provision made for a high volume The urban expansion dreaded by some and keenly desired
At around the same time, the amount of hotel accommodation large mansions, there was nothing but a towpath carved out by of traffic. But at this distance from the town, at Denantou, such a vast by others took place not along the main quay but in the village
– which had not increased since the inauguration of the Beau- waves lapping the shore. However, the path was extremely popular construction for a relatively limited number of pedestrians would give the itself, whose western side was completely rebuilt between 1904
Rivage Palace – was augmented when the castle was converted with walkers because of ‘the marvellous view opening up before one’s eyes, impression of isolation and abandonment.’ Believing it ‘wrong to spoil and 1906. Work on the Beau-Rivage Palace began in 1905 and
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into a hotel at the instigation of a leading player on Lausanne’s the complete absence of the north wind in winter, and a temperature so mild nature and replace it with assortments of geometric shapes’, they came was completed in 1908. The lower section of the Avenue d’Ouchy
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financial scene, Jean-Jacques Mercier-Marcel. He was the principal one might imagine oneself on the shores of the Mediterranean’ (fig. 8). 18 up with their own plan for a quay – 12 metres wide but espousing had to be widened to make room for the trams which had come
shareholder of the Lausanne-Ouchy Railway and its associated The citizens of Ouchy formed a committee, which included the the curves of the lake shore more closely. into service in Lausanne in 1896. This meant demolishing houses

Map of Lausanne in 1896, detail. Towpath. Photograph, c.1891. Looking westwards along the promenade 1901-02. Postcard, 1902.

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