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Looking east from Carrières street; Le Corbusier was commissioned by Eugène Claudius-Petit, who became mayor of Firminy in 1953, to design a central ‘agora’ including a sports stadium, cultural centre and church, as well as the Unité, which he organized as an ensemble around the bowl of an abandoned quarry. The ensemble was called "Firminy Vert' (Green Firminy) to mark a new beginning for what had been "Firminy Noir" (Black Firminy), a coal-mining town. André Wogenscky worked with Le Corbusier as early as 1945, when they proposed a design for the rebuilding of the town of Saint-Dié, France, which had been destroyed in 1944. He continued to work with Le Corbusier until the latter's death in 1965, becoming the Firminy Vert project manager at that point. Although a swimming pool had been part of the original design, it was solely executed by Wogenscky. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 5/12/2011)