Parc André Citroën was named for the Citroën car company’s founder and is one of the largest parks built in Paris during the 20th-century and one of its largest urban renewal projects. This site used to be a part of President François Mitterrand’s (1916-1996) Grandes Opérations d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme program. Its mission was to transform Paris by building modern monuments such as parks, squares, and gardens throughout the city; many of which were in the city’s densely populated outer neighborhoods.

The challenge of designing Parc André Citroën fell into the laps of landscape architects Gilles Clément (1943 - ) and Allan Provost (1938 - ) together with architects Patrick Berger (1947 - ), Jean-François Jodry (1944 - ), and Jean-Paul Viguier (1946 - ). They orchestrated a large central lawn with themed gardens, water features, and paired glasshouses. The two large conservatories face each other across a plaza of water fountains that jet from stone pavers. One building is filled with rare tropical plants. The other houses plants are from Mediterranean climates.

As Alan and Nancy describe these modern jewels in their book, The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass,

“Just as the glass palaces of the previous century were made possible by new engineering and building technology, the conservatories of Parc Citroën make innovative use of a new technology - tension cables that support the structure and glass skin. Gone are the steel beams and girders of the previous era; the structure is a web of steel cable.”