Long Lost Le Corbusier

Around 1950, the mayor of Firminy, France "initiated a large-scale renewal project, recruiting a team of planners to create a 'vertical garden city' on an open site adjacent to the old town. The new town became known as 'Firminy-Vert,' in contrast to the notorious Firminy 'noir' of the 19th-century mining era. Le Corbusier was asked to design three Unités d'Habitation, as well as a cultural center, stadium and parish church, which he organized as an ensemble around the bowl of an abandoned quarry. When Le Corbusier died, most of his buildings were still under construction. But Firminy-Vert was already being praised as one of Europe's most accomplished postwar planning exercises."