In 2003, the competition for the design of the National Assembly House and New Ba Dinh Conference Hall offered a unique and exceptional site on which would be conceived the Vietnam's new National Assembly building, a lieu where the remnants of the past underline the evidence of a long, rich and eventful history. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum stands out as the major landmark of the urban setting surrounding the project; its form and location generating the two main axes, the North-South axis along Ba Dinh Square and the East-West axis on Bac Son Road. Within the city blocks these avenues create, standing discreetly behind thick screens of vegetation, are the major public buildings, inherited from the French Beaux-Arts architecture era of the 20th century: The Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Party Headquarters and the Ministry of Planning and Investment.