Notre-Dame in Paris will reopen to the public on Sunday, after five years of rebuilding work in the wake of a devastating 2019 fire. But it won’t look quite the same. As one early visitor tells CityLab, “there’s now a feeling that it’s just been built.” The cathedral’s restoration is one of history’s most remarkable, requiring an astounding level of attention to detail and the expertise of France’s craftspeople — supported by €846 million in donations. But while this might seem like a rebirth for the 800-year-old Gothic masterpiece, Notre-Dame “has always been less a relic than a work in progress, with a long history of being re-shaped, extended, battered, neglected and revived,” write Feargus O’Sullivan and Tara Patel. Go behind the scenes today on CityLab: Notre-Dame Reopens ‘More Beautiful Than Before’ — Linda Poon This Is What the World’s First All-EV Car Market Looks Like Norway is on the cusp of completing a transition away from combustion cars thanks to targeted incentives that made electrics an easy choice. How a Drive-In Megachurch Became a Catholic Cathedral Designed by an acclaimed architect for a famous televangelist, a unique church in Southern California has been transformed. The Developing World Is Buying $180,000 E-buses on the Cheap India used financial alchemy to fund big-city transport at 30 cents a ride. |