Leon Krier’s death (2025) is an opportunity to reflect on his remarkable life and career and to celebrate his 1976 plan for the La Villette competition in Paris.

A comprehensive plan that integrated into the surrounding urban context and proposed an urban composition consisting of a grid of streets and blocks organized around two major axes. The primary axis aligned with the canal while the cross axis contained all the civic and cultural buildings for the district.

At the centre of the plan is a park, divided into two parts, one formal and French, the other informal and English.

Leon Krier skillfully demonstrated his ability to create a coherent pattern of traditional urbanism in contrast to Le Corbusier’s Radiant City plan for Paris 1935.