Paris’ Pathé Palace, Designed by Renzo Piano, Lends Unifrance Rendez-Vous a Taste of French Luxury

variety.com:

Ben Croll Once the City of Light’s newest and chicest movie palace plays host to this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris opening on Tuesday, one might hardly fault first-time attendees for the odd pangs of déjà vu.

Just steps from the iconic Opera Garnier in the heart of town, the Haussmannian unit that houses the recently opened Pathé Palace began as a vaudeville theater in 1868, before serving a more than century-long stretch as an upscale marquee, first as Le Paramount, later Le Gaumont Opera, and now, after five years of dark screens and design renewal, as Pathé Cinemas‘ flagship Parisian venue.

As with the building’s familiar Haussmannian exterior, architects from the Renzo Piano Building Workshop sought to integrate old and new, accentuating light and open space with use of glass structures and mixed-use construction techniques similar to those of the Centre Pompidou and The Shard, all while honoring existing design features like a monumental Art Deco staircase that had stood for nearly a century.

Though upper levels include both private use reception facilities alongside Pathé’s own offices, the Pathé Palace remains a premium multiplex par excellence, housing seven screens decked out with the technical and comfort amenities one would come to expect along with several more uncommon creature comforts.