Paul from Paris

43 rue des Couronnes

The apartment building on the rue des Couronnes by Charlet and Perrin is out of the way but well worth a trip.

The building won a prize from the city of Paris for its facade in 1905. This is what the jury had to say then:

“The jury was very interested by the combination of the most ordinary materials with stone. This gives an overall effect that is both simple and recherché, and makes it possible to achieve good-looking streets in modest residential neighborhoods.” (my very rough translation)

By “the most ordinary materials”, the jury meant brick. Among Paris building facades that won prizes in the early 1900s, many used brick, which compared to an all-stone building would have lowered construction costs and allowed for artistry.  Prizewinning architects often used brick to achieve structural or visual effects that wouldn’t have been possible in stone.

This having been said, for this reader the operative word in the jury’s comments is: combination. What interested the jury was not only how “the most ordinary materials” were used, but especially how brick was combined with stone. In this building, stone is used to frame the entry door, to frame windows, and as ornamentation. For this visitor, what’s remarkable is how stone is used merely to suggest the idea of an apartment building, or to signal to passersby that this is a proper apartment building.

The jury also made a comment that seems to have been pressing and prominent in 1905: architecture –good architecure– is for everybody. Whether moved by égalité or fraternité, the best-facade jury sought out and rewarded modest buildings situated in popular neighborhoods.

The rue des Couronnes is in the 20th arrondissement, usually thought of as working class and lacking tourist attractions. When I first saw the building at 43 rue des Couronnes, I thought of Amélie Poulin: it looks like a holdover (or transplant) that time forgot. The building is alone, bordered on one side by a park and on the others by groups of postwar buildings. Whereas number 43 is on the street, with a sidewalk and stores, its neighbors seem embarrassed or ashamed: they huddle at a remove from the street.

Of all the buildings that won a prize from the city of Paris for their facade, I think this one was most worth the trip.
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The city of Paris gave an award to Henri Adolphe Auguste Delgane for one of the best building façades built in 1906.

I love this building, because to my eyes, it’s a poor man’s building set in a rich man’s neighborhood. Put differently, it’s a building that I find democratic or egalitarian.

Viewed from the street, the corner building is modest compared to its neighbors. It’s made mostly of brick. The ground floor has some boutiques but otherwise keeps quiet.

What makes this building special? What makes it stand out?

Two points come to the mind of this spectator.

First, the architect puts creative use of stone and sculpted elements a few floors above street level.

Second, the architect reserved his most exuberant treatment for the building’s corner. Delgane departs from the neighborhood convention (corners at a 90° angle) with a rounded corner, with large windows and balconies on upper floors.

sober storefronts

corner

facade details

5 rue de Luynes

“Finally, we’ll describe the charm of detail, of invention, of inspiration from nature for the sculpted elements that seduced all of us in an apartment building on the rue de Luynes, by the architect Pradelle.”

These were the remarks made by the jury when it chose Pradelle and his building at 5 rue de Luynes as having one of the six priezwinning facades in Paris for the year 1904.

Pradelle’s building looks typically Parisian, Haussmannian. Nothing makes it stand out from its neighbors, in a quiet part of the 7th arrondissement.

Pradelle’s inventiveness lies principally in his use of decoration, especially vegetal and floral motifs. The ironwork of the building door signals or echoes these motifs.

floral motif; "swastika" motif unfortunate in hindsight

199 bis, bd St-Germain

Compared to the exuberance of Lavriotte’s apartment house on the avenue Rapp, Pasquier’s building at 199 bis boulevard Saint-Germain looks sedate.

The city of Paris awarded prizes for the facades of both buildings in 1901. What is it about Pasquier’s stately and low-key building that pleased the jury?

I have a couple of hypotheses; right or wrong, they underscore what makes this building special:

• Pasquier’s boulevard Saint-Germain building has a door. A real door, made of heavy ironwork, framed by stonework. As the century wore on, Paris architects seem to have forgotten about doors. Post-war buildings are especially egregious offenders in this respect, as they often have swinging glass panes as doors.
  There’s glass in the entry to Pasquier’s building, but it separates the entry from the courtyard. It features an art nouveau vegetal motif; it’s visible from the street but contributes to separating what’s in the building from the street outside.
• Pasquier respects the alignment, style of adjacent buildings, and a limited ornamental palette, while showing an extraordinary attention to detail. I’m especially taken by how the architect treated a north-facing, first-floor window. The window practically invites light in, and its canopy segues into a different treatment reserved to the second-floor balcony.

29 av Rapp (Paris)

“It’s not likely that Paris will witness a proliferation of this kind of construction.”

These were some of the selection jury’s comments when it awarded a prize in 1901 to Jules Lavriotte for the façade of the apartment house at 29 avenue Rapp, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.

Years ago, I had the good fortune to study art history, and the greater fortune to study this building. (Thank you, Martha Ward.) Befitting American students prone to afternoon somnolence, examination of the building focused on its entrance, most aptly described as labial, and at its sculpted door, with a phallic motif.

When I return to look at the building today, I see all of that, but I notice a lot more:

• Lavriotte plays with symmetry, or rather an absence of symmetry: the entry is off-center. A balcony on the third floor is centered, but the structure on either side of it is not; and examined vertically, one side of the facade has continuity, while the other has an interruption.
• Inside or outside? Lavriotte toys with facade viewers by alternating projections and indentations to the facade. The second, third, and fourth floors take flights of fancy, while floors above and below adhere to strict conventions.
• Rich art nouveau ornamentation is everywhere! As a repeat spectator, I’m especially drawn to the balcony on the third floor. There’s great attention to detail in the stonework, the iron grillings, ornamentation (with vegetal art nouveau themes) on the facade surface, and on the underside of the balcony, where there are colored ceremics, including a pair of cows.

entry

facade

balcony detail