The corridors with screen-printed windows, a legacy linked to the Imart family.
It all started in the 1990s when Hervé Canivet, a real estate investor, bought the buildings from the descendants of Joseph Maraval. They had been on sale for a while, but the family asked for a price considered unreasonable despite the interest they aroused. One fine day, Hervé Canivet was called by a contact, who advised him to recall the Maravals and make an offer: it was finally accepted and the work could quickly begin.
The great weeping willow that was in the centre of the cloister paid for it. The buildings were renovated and 42-44 rue de la Madeleine was divided into brand new housing.
But it is from 2004, with the projects of the Imart family, that the cloister will undergo a major renovation to become a heritage recreation with screen-printed windows along the corridors, and a work around the volumes by the Toulouse architectural firm Cardete and Huet.
From 2017 to 2022, the Amirault-Aguirre family will have continued the work, but it is since 2022, that things have accelerated.
Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, American citizens of Seattle, have acquired the cloister as their main residence. Respectively contemporary art gallery owner and owner of a framing store, they fell under the spell of the place and also saw its potential.
Very quickly, they undertook an ambitious renovation program. This was notably the case with the roof and the framing on the rue de la Madeleine side in 2023, made in strict compliance with the Bâtiments de France, which earned the building a label of the Heritage Foundation.
The new stone and wood terrace, the swimming pool of adapted size (less than 10 m2), the enrichment of the green spaces in the cloister and outside the residence side Les Charmes have come to reinforce the aesthetics and harmony of the place.
The renovations of the exterior wall near the Madeleine church, and the staircase to access the cloister, even if they are quantified and have given rise to recent exchanges with the Bâtiments de France, are projects on progress.
The recently landscaped garden on the Les Charmes residence.
New terrace and more flowers in the cloister.