The deep hooded lids that cover each window of the hotel articulate the façade like outsized scales. These quite clearly serve their function protecting the cool dark interior against the heat coming from the Sahel region and the winds from the Atlantic. However, the geometric confidence of such a volume speaks of something else. Here Chomette, Depret, and Melot were sculpting a surface that addressed the central ceremonial space of the city. … This building applies the lessons of the West African vernacular and purposeful ambiguities of Senghor’s asymmetric parallelism planning policy to a building type that had seemingly little sym- bolic significance. Excerpt from Manuel Herz’s article in: SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey. Catalog DAM + Wüstenrot Foundation, Zurich (Park Books) 2017

The Hôtel Indépendance stood empty for years. From 2019, it underwent such extensive renovation that the building is now unrecognizable: the geometric shading elements of the original façade were completely removed and the remaining skeleton of the building was given a new façade consisting largely of smooth grey wall cladding and a horizontal metal grid covering the entire surface. Since the renovation, the building has been used as a hotel again under the same name, but according to Google it appears to be closed once more at the moment. More details are not known.

This building was included in the red list, published in our exhibition catalog SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (September 2017). After a status review on December 2, 2024, it is still classified as red (endangered) in the online database.