The origin of the quartier des Etats-Unis ("United States district") dates back to 1917. Edouard Herriot, the Mayor of Lyon, announced the creation of lodgings for workers at the factories located between La Guillotière and Vénissieux: this was the first social housing, or Habitations à Bon Marché.
Tony Garnier, an architect who had won the Grand Prix de Rome, was chosen to coordinate this monumental undertaking. Work on the site began in 1920 and the first residents arrived in July 1933.
Restored between 1985 and 1997, the popular Etats-Unis district has witnessed an interesting cultural development: in 1988 the artists of Citécréation® began to design and create huge wall paintings. This was the birth of the Tony Garnier Urban Museum.
The Urban Museum now offers a tour of the Cité de Tony Garnier, a set of 25 wall paintings; there is also a model apartment that recreates the atmosphere of the 1930s, a reception and temporary exhibition area.
Part of Lyon's "Utopies Réalisées" (utopias achieved).
19 huge wall paintings, inspired by the works of Tony Garnier: plans for his Socialist Industrial City designed at the turn of the century, the Edouard Herriot hospital, the slaughterhouses (that adjoined the Halle Tony Garnier covered market) inauguration with Edouard Herriot, Tony Garnier, the Lumière brothers, Jules Courmont and Laurent Bonnevay, Gerland football stadium, and one with watercolours of Tony Garnier (2001). 6 wall paintings sponsored by UNESCO, designed by artists from around the world, representing their vision of the ideal city: the Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, the United States, India, Mexico and Russia.
www.museeurbaintonygarnier.com
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