Par Eloise Aube
Published on
No, it’s not a joke. And the people of Le Havre with their sharp eyesight know it well. When the weather is nice and the sky is clear, it is possible to see from the beach of the Havre or on the heights of the city… the CHU de Caen!
What confirms to 76 currently Éric Baudet, director of the Le Havre tourist office:
When the weather is nice and the weather is clear, you can clearly see the CHU de Caen.
In the distance therefore, a large square concrete block. Sometimes grey, sometimes white depending on the visibility of the day.
And this vision, surprising to say the least, is linked to the greatest of chances and not to the architect’s desire to make the Caennais hospital shine beyond its lands.
A building 100 meters high
Let’s rewind a bit. It’s in 1970 that the work of the University Hospital of Caen starts and five years later, it opens its doors. Designed by the architect Henry Bernard, it is almost 90 meters high, or 23 floors. But at that time, for the architect, the idea was not to make the building visible beyond the walls of Caen. The only wish was to make one “hospital-liner”that is, a hospital capable of introducing a university center.
However, despite the 48.2 kilometers that separate Le Havre from Caen (as the crow flies), this white cube is clearly visible from the ocean city and appears, from time to time, between two boats.
A new university hospital in Caen
In Caen, a new university hospital is under construction. Buildings dedicated to pharmacy, education and administration, as well as biology, in addition to a central building that will house care.
(Much) lower than the first, the inauguration should take place in 2026.
A tower that we will soon no longer see
New CHU obliges (see box above), the 23-storey tower must soon be demolished. More precisely deconstructed as explained by Pierre Nassif, director of material resources at the CHU, to our colleagues from Freedom “because it is impossible to bring down such a building in one block with all the existing activities around it”.
It remains to be seen when this emblematic structure will disappear and leave a small empty space on the horizon of Le Havre.
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