Tony Garnier urban museum, Lyon

Some days after the United States entered in the WW1 in 1917, Lyon City Council named the new boulevard connecting Guillotière to Venissieux with the name of this new ally. The district will naturally take the name of its main axis. During the war, it hosted 10,000 American soldiers in transit for the front.

Then, a little time after the end of the hostilities, a part of this zone becomes a kind of little respectable shanty town. The city of Lyon chooses then an architect and town planner, Tony Garnier, to set up an experimental city.

T. Garnier had already published in 1917 a visionary project of "industrial City", which had to offer to its inhabitants an ambitious and comfortable alternative in the sheds the blue collars were living in : buildings built in reasonable scale, surrounded with green spaces and welcoming shops at their first floor. This arrangement was then revolutionary for housing intended for modest incomes : gas, electricity, rubbish chute.

The project is stopped in January, 1920. Meanwhile, the financial constraints reduce the surface of the grounds of 4/5 and Garnier will have to modify his project and heighten of 2 floors its houses. Blocks will be officially inaugurated on June 25th, 1934.

From 1917, Garnier had even foreseen a tramway for this place. It will only be put in function in 2009 : it is the line T4.