The Grand Palais is a Parisian architectural feast, emerging from a mammoth restoration project

It took four years for the Grand Palais' meticulous restoration to complete, but this Paris classic has just reopened to the public - and it is an architectural spectacle to be savoured. The works were carried out by Parisian studio Chatillon Architectes, which, headed by founder François Chatillon, took detailed care to craft a space that feels at once familiar and refreshed, respecting the historical building's nature and seminal place in the French collective consciousness.

Walk through the refreshed Grand Palais

When we last visited the Grand Palais - last year and ahead of the Paris Olympic Games, through the lens of champion fencer Enzo Lefort - we found the space a poised building site and a hive of activity hinting at what would follow. Revisiting the building upon its completion, guests can now expect its full splendour to be revealed.

The city monument was originally built for the Universal Exposition of 1900, instantly recognisable for its grand nave and glass roof and created by a team of architects of the time, including Charles Girault, who acted as the main coordinator. The listed structure was a unique commission for the architecture team at Chatillon, who started working on the project in 2021, as it closed temporarily for restoration. Bringing the complex back to life was not a mean feat, involving studying thousands of archive plans and documents and working with a site of some 900 team members - and that is even beyond considering the building's sensitive period nature.

Now, the 120-year-old structure has been fully reopened, showing off its reimagined some-77,000 sq ft worth of areas, which have been gently tweaked to reinforce its original architects' intention, while cleaning, repairing and rebuilding parts of its skin and bones which were damaged or altered over time. 'It was a tired building, in danger and bad shape,' says Chatillon, leading a tour of the refreshed interiors. 'There was an initial restoration effort between 2000-2006, but then it stopped and the site had to wait for 15 years for it all to restart.'

He continues to explain how a key part of their efforts focused on recreating and rebalancing the existing building fabric, while another zoomed in on opening up the interior and allowing new vistas and views through its diverse areas and grand halls. A central section now hosts cafes, lobby areas and a shop, but it is cleared from partitions and its walls cleverly punctured with openings towards both the great nave to the left and the rest of the areas; it is a reception area that feels bright, generous and expansive. It all serves as an open, social plaza, which is free to enter and enjoy. Offerings there include Le Réséda Café led by Michelin-starred Chef Thierry Marx; and the brasserie Le Grand café, operated by Loulou and designed by Joseph Dirand.

On either side of it, visitors are led towards various galleries and flexible event areas. Downstairs (where the Grand Palais stables used to be accessed via a ramp) is more gallery space alongside facilities for guests, such as chic, ceramic-clad lockers of various sizes and bathrooms. A huge corridor hiding logistics and machinery for the cultural space's contemporary needs runs the entire main hall's periphery, hidden behind the historic fabric. Meanwhile, Chatillon also redesigned the surrounding gardens, adjacent to the nearby Champs-Élysées gardens, and including over 60,000 plants from 250 species.

Architectural magic is at work as you stroll through the Grand Palais' majestic spaces, as what you see is not always what you get. Walls that appear to be made out of stone are in fact made of textured stucco, while marble-looking columns are painted in the Grand Palais' signature green striations. It was all designed to follow the period building's initial spirit. 'We found the exact colour in the archives,' Chatillon explains. Then lots of the new decor and furniture have been made in tones of pink, as 'green and pink are complementary.'

The project was long and detailed but offered numerous opportunities for creativity and innovation, Chatillon says: 'Restoration is always innovation. We cannot go back. We analyse the building using modern, 3D modelling technologies to understand it and then we have to be creative and not work against what is already there. My work is like Michelangelo with a piece of marble block. The solutions - the final work - are already inside. Restoration work has to set them free. You have to be imaginative.'

Now open to the public, the Grand Palais' inaugural shows include numerous exhibitions, such as one on Tour of the Niki de Saint Phalle and another on Art Brute (the latter organised by the Centre Pompidou, while its own main base is closed for refurbishment). They are all accessible via different entrances within the main foyer plaza, through the building's reconfigured entrance. The large-scale project completed, public access to the building was impressively increased by 140% overall.