Groupe scolaire

In 1935-1936, Valenciennes architect Henri Armbruster (1868-1959), a student of Victor Laloux, designed a school complex that includes a nursery school and a girls' school, situated on a plot between the fortifications and boulevard des Écoles, separated by the extension of rue du Maréchal-de-Croy. The initial project, dated 1931 and aligned with eclectic tradition, was ultimately discarded. Armbruster, inspired by his time in the United States, developed a new design in July 1934 characterized by a more contemporary aesthetic, drawing from Modernist principles and the trend of open-air schools that emerged in the 1920s.