Nouvel designing marine center in Le Havre, France.

Jean Nouvel last month beat finalists MVRDV and Daniel Libeskind in an open competition to build Le Havre, France's new Marine Center and swimming pool complex. The $39 million project is part of a large-scale investment scheme to turn the city's port into a culture, leisure, and shopping quarter. The surrounding industrial aesthetic of the area influenced Nouvel's design, which includes a 394-foot-high glass-and-steel tower. Two cantilevered platforms will house exhibitions on port economy, history, and environment. The pool complex and Marine Center are tentatively scheduled for completion at the end of 2006 and the end of 2007, respectively.