Maison de commerce Art déco, rue Saint-Aubert 58 — Arras

Severely damaged by bombing during the First World War, the building that stood on the plot had its surviving parts demolished and was then entirely rebuilt, a reconstruction that stretched over ten years. The architect Gaston Henry, approved for the works of the reconstruction cooperatives of the Pas-de-Calais, signed two successive projects, in 1926 and in 1930; the second, more geometric and pared-down than the first, produced the present building. Built of concrete painted white, it has a shop on the ground floor, two storeys and an attic; its façade is divided into three bays of geometric windows, rectangular, prismatic or lozenge-shaped with canted sides depending on the floor, and the Flemish stepped gable takes on a geometric, pared-down form. The joinery and mouldings are painted in pastel shades of blue and yellow. According to the French heritage inventory, the building belongs to the geometric Art Deco current characteristic of the late 1920s, as shown by its windows with stepped sills, the fluted pilasters with geometric capitals on the ground floor and its ironwork.

Translated from the French original.