Buildings were designed to express their function, using simple geometric forms, with a minimum of ornament and decoration. They were usually designed so that every office had its own window and view. The materials of choice were reinforced concrete, sometimes covered with aluminium panels, and glass. The term "Palais" used for many public buildings before the war was replaced by the more modest term "Maison", or "House." In place of decoration, the buildings often contained works of sculpture in interior courtyards and were surrounded by gardens. There was little if anything specifically French about the new buildings; they resembled modernist buildings in the United States and other parts of Europe, and, particularly under President François Mitterrand, were often designed by internationally famous architects from other countries. Among the earliest and most influential of the new public buildings was the Maison de la Radio (1952–63), the headquarters of French national radio and television, along the Seine in the 16th arrondissement, designed by Henry Bernard. Bernard had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, won the Prix de Rome, and eventually became the head of the Academy of Beaux-Arts, but he converted with enthusiasm to the new style. The Maison de la Radio was composed of two circular buildings fitted one inside the other, an outer circle facing the river, with a thousand offices, an inner circle made up of studios, and a 68-meter tall tower in the center, which contains the archives. It was originally designed with a concrete façade on the outer building, but it was modified and covered with a skin of aluminium and glass. It was described by its builders as a continuation toward the west of the line of great monuments beside the Seine: the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and Palais de Chaillot. Other major public buildings in the monumental modernist style included the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural headquarters, on Place Fontenoy in the 7th arrondissement, by Marcel Breuer, Bernard Zehrfuss and Pier Luigi Nervi (1954–58), in the form of a tripod of three wings made of reinforced concrete, with gardens between the wings. Each office in the building benefited from natural light and an exterior view. The headquarters of the French Communist Party at 2 Place du Colonel Fabien (19th arrondissement), was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who had just finished designing Brasília, the new Brazilian capital city.