Garden City of Suresnes

The Garden City of Suresnes is one of the largest garden cities in the region of Île-de-France. The city, built from 1921, is located between the Saint-Cloud racetrack and Mont-Valérien, on the Fouilleuse plateau, overlooking the Seine. Built in Suresnes, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, this garden city was created by architects Alexandre Maistrasse, Julien Quoniam and Félix Dumail, on the initiative of mayor Henri Sellier, mainly from 1921 and 1939 and after the war until 1956. It has approximately 3,300 housing units, including 170 pavilions, as well as numerous facilities (theater, schools, shower-baths, residence for the elderly, housing for singles, places of worship and shops).

Planning and naming
In 1915, the Habitation à bon marché or HBM of the Seine department, headed by the mayor of the industrial city of Suresnes Henri Sellier, decided to build an architectural ensemble to accommodate the city's 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, many of whom were workers in the city's numerous factories. The chosen site was a 30 hectare area on an agricultural plateau located on the edge of the Rueil-Malmaison commune. The project provided for the coexistence of four-storey apartment buildings and individual pavilions. Alexandre Maistrasse was in charge of the works, assisted by Julien Quoniam from 1927. From 1938, Félix Dumail was in charge of site. Among the collaborators of Henri Sellier who participated in the creation of the garden city, there were two notable women: town planner Berthe Leymarie (born in 1876), the then director of the HBM and a 'visiting nurse' who defended a thesis on the subject in 1923 and worked particularly in the social aspect of these sets, as well as Georgette Le Campion, commonly called Géo (born in 1880), graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and professor of drawing in the schools of the garden city of Suresnes, who produced for them several educational frescoes emphasizing hygiene and civic education.

The first stone was laid in 1921. 4/5th of the inhabitants live in apartment buildings, while the pavilions have a garden at the back. There are several categories of accommodation (in relation to the number of rooms and amenities), the rent of which varies.

The choice of street names for the garden city was made according to the following perspective, as expressed by the mayor to the municipal council of March 22, 1932: “The municipality wanted to pay homage to the thinkers and statesmen of all religions and all nationalities who, over the centuries until our tragic time, have held out to humanity the torch which should guide it towards final peace and the brotherhood of people." The streets are named after the Duke of Sully, Hugo Grotius, William Penn, the abbé de Saint-Pierre, Romain Rolland, Jean Jaurès, Léon Bourgeois, Paul Henri Balleut, Former US President Woodrow Wilson, Frank Billings Kellogg, Louis Loucheur (many Suresnois (residents of Suresnes) benefiting from his law to build pavilions) and Gustav Stresemann. He also decided to give the names of plants and flowers for certain streets, to keep the historical name of La Fouilleuse as well as that of the crossroads of Croix-du-Roy, thus respecting the heritage of Suresnes.

First developments
In 1921, while the dwellings were not all equipped with a bathroom, collective shower-baths were built in the first residential islet. Before its rehabilitation between 1985 and 1996, it still had 300 admissions per week. The building is now converted into a Center for Assistance through Work, a medico-social establishment for the professional integration of disabled people. At the end of the 1930s, an infant hygiene and childcare center had also been built in allée des Platanes.

In 1932, the construction of the Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix began, supervised by Dom Paul Bellot. An apartment located on avenue Gustave-Stresemann houses the Israelite place of worship. In 1954, the Protestant temple of Suresnes in avenue d'Estournelles de Constant was built in stone, replacing a wooden hut built in 1947. Squares planted with trees and carpeted with lawns are located in the center of the main islets of the garden city. In the center, the Léon-Bourgeois square extends over 10,200m2.

Education
From the first phase of construction between 1922 and 1926, the garden city was equipped with schools: the Vaillant-Jaurès school group, the Aristide Briand school, then the Wilson nursery school. The Groupe Scolaire Vaillant-Jaurès was the first to be built, from 1922, according to the plans of the architect Alexandre Maistrasse. Its yellow brick architecture is embellished with ironwork, ceramics and magnificent mosaics on the facade, including a monumental clock face. It accommodates around 140 nursery school and 460 primary school students in 14 single-sex classes. Numerous games and educational devices accompany schooling: from weaving looms and merry-go-rounds for the little ones to household arts and woodworking and metal workshops to prepare adolescents for jobs. The interior decor created by Géo le Campion illustrates the principles of life (hygiene, sport, education) and decorates the premises with illustrations from Perrault's tales.

The Groupe Scolaire Aristide Briand was built between 1930 and 1933, during the third phase of construction of the garden city. It is now known as Collège Henri Sellier. Faced with the exponential increase in the population, this second school was built to accommodate 15 classes of girls and as many boys while allowing them to have drawing rooms, workshops but also a gymnasium and a swimming pool. Today, 500 students still study in these places.

A nursery school with 4 classes was built at the same time a few steps from the Aristide Briand school: l'école maternelle Wilson. Its equipment for toddlers is remarkable: merry-go-round, slide, rocking horses, pools allow everyone to learn while having fun.

After the war
Félix Dumail and Léon Bazin rebuilt housing and enlarged the city after the Second World War. Shower and bath were thus generalized after 1948. The city was definitively completed in 1956, completing the 8th and 9th sections of apartment buildings provided for in the initial project. The garden city then had 3,297 dwellings, including 170 pavilions. Between 1985 and 1996, it was one of the first rehabilitated garden cities.

Recognitions
In 1985, the city was included in the inventory of picturesque sites in the Hauts-de-Seine department. Its complete rehabilitation was undertaken from 1986 to 1996. In 1990, the Jean-Vilar theatre was redeveloped.

In 1996, it was protected by a Zone de protection du patrimoine architectural, urbain et paysage (ZPPAUP or ) in 2010, then a heritage site in 2016. In July 2018, the Garden City of Suresnes was labeled 'Heritage of regional interest” by the permanent commission of the Île-de-France regional council.