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In Algiers, the numerous urban dysfunctions observed in the 1990s and 2000s have led the public authorities to undertake profound changes in their urban production methods. They chose to resort to the expertise of foreign urban engineering to define projects which would have an international influence and to make local public structures evolve towards better quality of urban production.According to many researchers, the use of the know-how of transnational urban professionals contributes to the transposition of “standard methods” from one place to another, independently of the local context. The case of the Bay of Algiers project is a good example: the operational set-up claimed by the transnational designers of the project very quickly came up against local administrative rigidities. Consensus on the adaptation of the proposed measures will be reached as the project moves from design to implementation.The aim of this article is to highlight the transformations of Algerian urban production induced by the integration of transnational actors, through the analysis of the management of the Bay of Algiers project.