This private mansion, owned by the State, transformed into 9 apartments
“I arrived at 35 in the most beautiful office I had and will never have again», confides Gabriel Turquet de Beauregard, Architect of Buildings of France (ABF), who worked 9 months in the mansion of Maquillé in the city center of Angers, in Maine-et-Loire (49). He had to leave the 800 m² building, the State wishing to separate from the building to consolidate the services of the Departmental Unit for Architecture and Heritage, Udap, in another Angevin building. During the inauguration of the hotel this week, after two years of work, the architect returns with emotion to the premises, transformed into nine apartments, after having actively participated in their transformation.
The challenge that Espace Investissement, specializing in the restoration of heritage buildings, and the Architect of Buildings of France had to take up: to make the 18th century hotel, listed as a historical monument since 1984, compatible with a contemporary use responding to modern comfort. “We didn’t want to turn it into a museum and put the building under cover“says Gabriel Turquet de Beauregard. Indeed, this propertymust not only be contemplated but it must be invested in order to understand the philosophy of the place“says Jean-Marc Verchère, the mayor of Angers. He is all the more sensitive to the charm of the Hôtel de Maquillé since it belonged to the city of Angers in the 1960s before becoming the property of the State.
Victim of his own success
And what a gamble it is to keep classified decorations, pilasters, draperies, rosettes, garlands of foliage… by transposing them into “real” life! Also, Janet Guinaudeau, founder and director of Espace Investissement, explains that reversible kitchens in the shape of cubes “blend into space“. The kitchen is indeed not built into the walls covered with ornaments but is presented in the form of a block installed in the center of the room, easily removable. “If tomorrow we want to go back to the previous layout, it’s possible“, promises Gabriel Turquet de Beauregard.
A respect for old buildings which represents aconstraint but I like this constraint“says Janet Guinaudeau. The monumental staircase has been preserved but the last flight leads nowhere since a duplex has been created on the second and third levels, instead of the attic. “A lace work that cannot be seen when the elements are completedcommented Janet Guinaudeau. This titanic project cost no less than 2 million euros.
All the apartments have already found takers for prices varying between 170,000 and 750,000 €, the units ranging from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments. “I did not know this well. My banker suggested that I make a tax exemption and as I am passionate about history and heritage, rather than investing in new with a Pinel device, I preferred to combine my wish for tax optimization with the preservation of heritage“, Argues a buyer of a T3 of 100 m². Falling under the spell of the Hôtel de Maquillé, he does not rule out living in his apartment after having rented it for a few years.
