Hôpital Edouard Herriot à Lyon, Tony Garnier, 1933

At a time when Lyon celebrates the one hundred and fifty years of the birth of one of the most famous architects of the beginning of the 20th century, Tony Garnier (1869-1948), the observation of the conservation of the works of the designer of the Cité industrielle (1917) is very disturbing. Garnier’s heritage remains extremely fragile and the protection measures are insufficient. Several complexes and buildings have been destroyed and disfigured, for example the Abattoirs de la Mouche in Gerland (Lyon, 1909-1914) that were demolished in 1974. The large hall of the market has been preserved and transformed into a performance hall. Although the Édouard-Herriot hospital (1913-1933) has benefited from the protection of the perimeter of its chapel since 1967, its monumental fireplaces were demolished in 2001 for security reasons and, more recently, the Pavilion H has been destroyed in 2015 with indifference for the construction of a new 18,000 m2 building, designed according to François Chatillon’s (1961-) plans and delivered in 2017.