Le Havre was almost completely devastated by intense British bombardments in 1944. The city benefited from a unique reconstruction as damage of war. The architect Auguste Perret imposed his innovative plan with the construction, in 1947, of the first I.S.A.I. (Buildings Without Individual Assignment). Nearly 40,000 inhabitants were waiting to be rehoused. Auguste Perret kept the location of the main buildings (town hall, Saint-Joseph Church, gardens) and avenues and created the monumental Porte Océane complex as well as a waterfront in a modern post-war style.