Préfecture des Hauts-de-Seine, Administrative tower in Nanterre, France.
The Préfecture des Hauts-de-Seine is an administrative building in Nanterre whose 25-storey tower rises 113 metres above a square base, a socle-and-block layout. Pale grey and cream facades carry continuous horizontal bands of dark window strips between light piers, and the flat top is edged by a thin parapet. The broad lower slab stacks alternating white bands and glazed strips, with treetops visible below.
The building was first planned to house the Musée du XXe siècle that André Malraux wanted, but it became the prefecture of Hauts-de-Seine instead. Architect André Wogenscky, a disciple of Le Corbusier, associated with urban planner Henri Chauvet for the project. The courthouse by the same architect was added between 1969 and 1974. The building was partly listed as a monument historique on 21 January 2019.
The building was meant to house the Musée du XXe siècle planned by André Malraux, but it became the prefecture instead. Its amphitheatre-shaped council hall, the Salle Chateaubriand, seats about a hundred people and takes its form from a sculpture by Marta Pan, wife of architect André Wogenscky.
The building is an active administrative centre, not a tourist site, so visits are tied to administrative business rather than sightseeing. It stands at the crossing of two axes, midway between place de Belgique and place de la Boule on avenue Frédéric-et-Irène-Joliot-Curie, near place Nelson-Mandela. Access is by RER A at Nanterre-Préfecture (650 m), RER E at Nanterre-La Folie and RER A/Transilien L at Nanterre-Université (700 m), plus six RATP bus lines.
The building was originally planned to house the Musée du XXe siècle that André Malraux wanted, before becoming the prefecture. Its amphitheatre-shaped Salle Chateaubriand, seating about a hundred, takes its form from a sculpture by Marta Pan, wife of architect André Wogenscky. The structure stands on piles because of the nearby water table and former mushroom farms.
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