Hector Guimard

The earliest constructed work of Guimard was the cafe-restaurant Au Grand Neptune (1888),[6] located on the Quai Auteuil in Paris at the edge of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889. It was picturesque but not strikingly innovative. It was demolished in 1910. He constructed another picturesque structure for the Exposition, the Pavilion of Electricity, a showcase for the work of electrical engineer Ferdinand de Boyéres. Between 1889 and 1895 he constructed a dozen apartment buildings, villas and houses, mostly in the Paris 16th arrondissement or suburbs, including the Hotel Roszé (1891) and the Hotel Jassedé (1893) without attracting much attention. He earned his living primarily from his teaching at the School of Decorative Arts.[7]

Guimard's first recognized major work was the Castel Béranger in Paris, an apartment building with thirty-six units constructed between 1895 and 1898, when the architect was just thirty years old. It was at 14, rue Jean de la Fontaine, Paris, for Mme. Fournier. He persuaded his client to abandon a more restrained design and replace it with a new design in a more modern style, similar to that of Horta's Hotel Tassel, which he had visited in the summer of 1895.[5] Guimard put together an extraordinary number of stylistic effects and theatrical elements on the facade and in the interior, using cast iron, glass and ceramics for decoration. The lobby, decorated with sinuous vine-like cast iron and colorful ceramics, resembled an undersea grotto. He designed every detail, including the wallpaper, rain spouts and door handles, and added adding highly modern new features including a telephone booth in the lobby.[8]

A skilled publicist, Guimard very effectively used the new building to advertise his work. He had his own apartment and office in the building. He organized conferences and press articles, set up an exhibition of his drawings in the salons of Le Figaro, and wrote a monograph on the building. In 1899 he entered it into the first Paris competition for the best new building facades, and in March 1899 it was selected one of the six winners, a fact which he proudly had inscribed on the facade of the building.[8]

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  Facade of the Castel Béranger
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  Gateway
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  Entrance hall
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  Balcony decoration
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  Exterior decoration
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  Villa Berthe (1896)

The success and publicity created by the Castel Beranger quickly brought him commissions for other residential buildings. Between 1898 and 1900 he constructed three houses simultaneously, each very different but recognizably in Guimard's style. The first, the Maison Coilliot, was built for the ceramics manufacturer Louis Coilliot on rue de Fleurs in Lille, and served as his store, reception hall and residence. The facade was covered with plaques of green enamelled volcanic rock, and decorated with soaring arches, curling wrought iron, and Guimard's characteristic asymmetric, organic doorways and windows.[9]

The following year, 1899, while he continued to teach regularly at the school of decorative arts in Paris, and continued construction of the Maison Coilliot, he began three new houses; The Modern Castel or Villa Canivet in Garches was Guimard's reinvention of a medieval castle. La Bluette in Hermanville-sur-Mer was Guimard's update of traditional Norman architecture. and the Castel Henriette, in Sevres. The Castel Henriette was the most inventive. It was located on a small site, almost circular, and was crowned with a tall, slender watchtower. To create more open interior space, Guimard moved the stairwell to the side of the building. The interior was lit by large windows, and featured ensembles of furniture all designed by Guimard. The building had an unhappy history. The watchtower fell in 1903, apparently after being struck by lightning. Guimard was summoned back and redesigned the house, adding new balconies and terrace. However, by the 1960s, the building was considered out of fashion, and it was rarely occupied. It served as a movie set before it was finally demolished, despite appeals by preservationists. Some of the furniture is now found in museums.[9]

In 1898 Guimard embarked upon another ambitious project, the construction of a concert hall, the Salle Humbert-de-Romans, located at 60 Rue Saint Didier (16th arrondissement). It was built as the centrepiece of a conservatory of Christian music intended for orphans, proposed by a Dominican monk, Father Levy. Guimard made an ambitious and non-traditional plan using soaring levels of iron and glass, inspired by an early idea of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. An organ manufacturer, in consultation with Camille Saint-Saens, donated a grand organ. The Salle was completed in 1901, but a scandal involving Father Levy and the orphans broke out. Father Levy was exiled by the Pope to Constantinople, the foundation was dissolved, and the concert hall was used only for meetings and conferences. It closed in 1904 and was demolished in 1905. The grand organ moved to the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Pual in Clichy, where it can be found today.[10][11]

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  The Maison Coilliot in Lille (1898–1900)
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  Villa La Bluette in Hermanville-sur-Mer, Calvados (1899–1900)
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  Castel Henriette, Sevres (1899-1900)
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  Castel Henriette after the removal of the watchtower
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  The Salle Humbert-de-Romans (1898–1901)
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  Colored postcard of the interior of the Salle-Humbert-de-Romans

The highly-publicized debut of the Hotel Béranger quickly brought Guimard new projects, including villas, a Paris concert hall, and, most famously, entrances for the stations of the new Paris Metro, which was planned to open in 1900 in time for the Paris Universal Exposition. A new organization, the chemin de fer métropolitan de Paris (CFP, now RATP) was created in April 1899 to build and manage the system. They organized a competition for station entrance edicules, or canopies, and balustrades, or railings. This attracted twenty-one applicants. Guimard did not apply. The twenty-one original applicants proposed edicules built of masonry, in various historic and picturesque styles. These were ridiculed in the press as resembling newspaper stands, funeral monuments, or public toilets. Time was short, and Guimard presented sketches of his own idea for entrances made of iron and glass, which would be quicker and simpler to manufacture. He was given the commission on 12 January 1900, just a few months before the opening of the system.[12]

To simplify the manufacture, Guimard made two designs of edicules, called Type A and B. Both were made of cast iron frames, with cream-colored walls and glass roofs to protect against rain. The A type was simpler and more cubic, while the B was rounded and more dynamic in form, and is sometimes compared with a dragonfly. Only two of the original A types were made and neither still exists. Only one B type, restored, remains in its original location, at Porte Dauphine.[13]

Guimard also designed a simpler version, without a roof, with railings or balustrades of ornamental green-painted iron escutcheons and two high pylons with lamps and a 'Métropolitain' sign. The pylons were in an abstract vegetal form he invented, not resembling any particular plant, and the lettering was in a unique which Guimard invented. These were the most common type.[13]

From the beginning, Guimard's Metro entrances were controversial. In 1904, after complaints that the new Guimard balustrade at the Opera station was not in harmony with the architecture of the Palais Garnier opera house, the Metro authorities dismantled the entrance and replaced it with a more classical model. Garnier was sarcastic in his response in the Paris La Press of Paris on 4 October 1904. "Should we harmonise the station of Père-Lachaise with the cemetery by constructing an entrance in the form of a tomb?...Should we have a dancer with her leg raised in front of the station at place Dame-Blanche, to harmonise with the Moulin-Rouge?"[13]

From the beginning, Guimard was also in conflict with the Metro authorities about his payments. The dispute was ended in 1903 with an agreement by which Guimard received payment, but gave up his models and manufacturing rights. Construction of new stations continued using his design without his participation. Between 1900 and 1913,[14] a total of 167 entrances were installed, of which sixty-six still survive, mostly in locations different from their original placement.[13]

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  Porte Dauphine Métro station, the only surviving entrance in its original location
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  Abbesses station entrance
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  Lamps and "Métropolitain" sign, Anvers
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  Bastille métro pavilion entrance (demolished in 1962)
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  Railing escutcheon with "M", Quatre-Septembre
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  Detail of an entrance's lamp post

In the early years of the 20th century, Guimard's popularity diminished and his earlier frenetic pace of production slowed down. His works shown at the 1903 Paris Exposition of residential architecture did not attract the attention of the Castel Beranger and other earlier work. He was supported largely by one wealthy client, Léon Nozal, and his friends. His works for this group included the La Sapiniere, a small beach house at Hermanville-sur-Mer, near his earlier La Bluette house; La Surprise, a villa at Cabourg; and the Castel Val at Auvers-sur-Oise. In Paris he constructed the Hotel Nozal on Rue Ranelagh for his friend; the Hotel Jassadé for Louis Jassadé on Avenue de Versailles; and the palatial Castel d'Orgeval, which was the centrepiece of a new residential development at Villemoisson-sur-Orge in the Paris suburbs.[15]

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  Drawing of the Castel d'Orgeval by Guimard (1904)
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  Plan of the Castel d'Orgeval drawn by Guimard (1904)
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  La Sapinière (1907) around the time of its completion (today considerably modified from Guimard's original design)

The most important work of this period is the Hotel Guimard, built in 1909 at 122 Avenue Mozart (XVIth arrondissement) in Paris, ten years after his first success with the Hotel Beranger. It was built following his marriage with Adeline Oppenheim, an American painter from a wealthy family. The land was purchased three months after the marriage, and in June 1910 Guimard was able to move the offices of his agency into the ground floor. The house was not occupied by the couple, however, for two more years, while the furniture he designed was manufactured. The house is located on a triangular lot, which proved particularly challenging for Guimard. He saved interior space by installing an inclined elevator rather than a stairway on the upper floors. The house was designed to show its functions on the facade; his wife could paint in one portion of the house, with large windows, while he worked in his bureau in another part of the house. It had a very large dining room and many tables, but no kitchen; it was apparently designed for working and entertaining. The house was later broken up into apartments, and the original room arrangements and furniture are gone.[16]

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  Hector Guimard with his wife Adeline, around 1910
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  Facade of the Hôtel Guimard. The studio of his wife was behind the large windows on the top floor.
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  Early photo of the main facade, with original windows
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  Madame Guimard's bedroom (1909)
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  Dining room (c. 1910). The house had a large dining room but no kitchen.

By the 1910s Guimard was no longer the leader of Paris architectural fashion, but he continued to design and build residences, apartment buildings, and monuments. Between 1910 and 1911 he built Hôtel Mezzara for Paul Mezzara, experimenting with skylights. Another notable work of this period is the Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue at 10 Rue Pavé (IV arrondissement) in the Marais district. The synagogue, Guimard's only religious building, is characterised by a narrow façade clad in white stone, whose surface curves and undulates while highlighting verticality. Like with his previous projects, Guimard designed the interiors as well, organising the spaces and creating original furnishings that matched the architectural motifs of the structure. The construction begun in 1913 with the inauguration taking place on 7 June 1914, just a few weeks before the beginning of the First World War.

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  Apartment building "Trémois", Rue Millet, Paris XVI arrondissement (1909)
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  Detail of the Rue Agar (then Rue Moderne) apartments (1910–1912).
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  Detail of windows from the Rue de la Fontain apartments (1911).
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  Hôtel Mezzara (1910-1911), exterior view.
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  The interiors of the Hôtel Mezzara, with Art Nouveau stairway and glass roof.
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  Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue rue Pavée, Paris, 1913
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  Decoration of entrance of the Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue
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  Interior of the Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue

By the time the First World War began in August 1914, Art Nouveau was already out of fashion. The army and war economy took almost all available workers and building materials. Most of Guimard's projects were shelved. and Guimard gave up his furniture workshop on Avenue Perrichont. He left Paris and to reside most of the war in a luxury hotel in Pau and Candes-Saint-Martin, where he wrote essays and pamphlets calling for an end to militarized society, and also, more practically, studying ideas standardized housing that could be constructed more quickly and less expensively, anticipating the need to reconstruct housing destroyed in the War. He received a dozen patents for his new inventions.[17][18]

One of the rare completed buildings still standing from this period is the office building at 10 Rue de Bretagne, begun in 1914 but not completed until after the War in 1919.[19][20] The Art Nouveau style was replaced by a more functional simplicity, where the reinforced concrete structure defined the exterior of the building. The postwar shortages of iron and other materials affected the style; there was little decoration of the facade, or entrance. He concentrated his attention on the parapets which gave the building a soaring, modern profile.[21][22]

Just before the First World War he had created a firm, the Sociéte général de constructions modernes, with the intention of building standardized housing at a modest price. He returned to Paris and in 1921–22, and built a small house at 3 Square Jasmin (16th arrondissement) designed to be a model for a series of standard houses, but it was not duplicated. He was unable to keep up with the rapid changes in styles and methods, and his firm was finally dissolved in July 1925.[23]

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  Model façade of the mass-produced house (1921)
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  Cast pieces to be assembled for the mass-produced house
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  Instructions for the construction of the mass-produced house, drawing by Guimard (October 1920)

In 1925 he participated in the Paris Exposition of Decorative and Modern Arts, the Exposition which gave its name to Art Deco, with a proposed model of a town hall for a French village. He also designed and built a parking garage and several war memorials and funeral monuments. He continued to receive honors, particularly for his teaching at the École national des arts decoratifs. In February 1929 he was named a Chevalier in the French Legion d'honneur.[23]

After the war, Art Deco emerged as the leading style of Parisian architecture. Guimard adapted to the new style and proved his originality and attention to the detail. His buildings display geometric decorative patterns, simplified columns emphasizing structural elements and rigid shapes; despite this they retain elements of his previous style: sinuous lines, vegetal-inspired ornaments and typical Art Nouveau iron railings.[18]

His next project, the Guimard Building, an apartment building at 18 Rue Henri Heine, Paris (XVI arrondissement, begun in 1926. is his last major project still standing. He made a skilful of different-colored brick and stone to create decorative designs on the facade, and added triangular sculpted windows on the roof level, and, in the interior. a very remarkable central stairway with curling iron railings and hexagonal windows of colored and clear glass bricks In 1928 he entered the building into the competition for the best Paris facades, the same competition that he had entered in 1898 with the Hôtel Beranger. He was a winner again, and was the first Paris architect to enter twice and to win twice. This building became his residence, though he was not able to move in until 1930.[24]

Despite his success with the facade competition, his late work appeared old fashioned, particularly compared with the modernism of the Paris buildings of Robert Mallet-Stevens, August Perret, and Le Corbusier. Between 1926 and 1930 he built several residential buildings in the same neighborhood as his home in the 16th arrondissement, which still exist. These include the Hôtel Houyvet, at 2 Villa Flore and 120 Avenue Mozart, built for the industrialist Michel Antoine Paul Houyhvet. His last recorded work was La Guimardière, an apartment building on Avenue Le Nôtre, Vaucresson in the Hauts-de-Seine suburb of Paris. It was completed in about 1930, but was demolished in March–April 1969.[23]

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  THe Guimard Building at Rue Henri-Heine, Paris XVI arrondissement (1926).
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  Detail of the Guimard Building, showing the entrance, where Art Deco and Art Nouveau elements coexist.
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  Apartmet building, Rue Greuze (28), (Paris XVI arrondissement)

As early as 1918 he took steps to assure that his work would be documented and would survive. He obtained space in the former orangerie of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he deposited models of his buildings and hundreds of designs. In 1936 he donated a large collection of his designs to Alfred Barr, the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1937 he received authorisation to put thirty cases of models in the cellars of the National Museum of Antiquities in Saint-Germaine-en-Laye.[25]

Guimard served as a member of the jury judging architectural works at the 1937 Paris Exposition, where he could hardly miss the monumental pavilion of Nazi Germany and the threat it presented. His wife was Jewish, and he was alarmed by the approaching likelihood of war. In September 1938 he and his wife settled in New York City. He died on 20 May 1942 at the Hotel Adams on Fifth Avenue. He is buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York, about 25 miles north of New York City.[23]

• Café Au grand Neptune, quai Louis-Blériot, Paris XVI (destroyed about 1910):
• Pavillion d'Electricité at the Exposition Universelle (1889), avenue Suffren, Pais (destroyed 1889):

• Hôtel Roszé, 34 rue Boileau, Paris, 16th arrondissement
• Two pavilions for Alphonse-Marie Hannequin, 145 Avenue de Versailles, Paris XVI (destroyed 1926)

• Villa Toucy, 189 rue du Vieux-Pont-de-Sevres, Billancourt (destroyed 1912–13)
• Maisons jumelles Lécolle
• Pavillon de chasse Rose, 14 et 14ter, rue des Tilleuls, Limeil-Brévannes, Val-de-Marne (détruit vers 1960)

• Hôtel Jassedé, 41 rue Chardon-Lagache (protected)

• Hôtel Delfau, 1 rue Molitor, Paris XVI (modified)

• École du Sacré-Coeur, 9 Avenue de la Frilliére, Paris XVI. Several school buildings. (Modified and some demolished. Protected in 1983)

• Villa Berthe, 72 route de Montesson, Le Vestinet (Yvelines) (protected in 1979)
• Maison de rapport Lécolle, 122, avenue des Batignolles (auj. avenue Gabriel-Péri), Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis:
• La Hublotière au Vésinet.[42]

• Maison Coilliot, 14 rue de Fleurus, Lille (Protected in 1977)
• Completion of Gun Shop building of Coutollau, 6 boulevard de Marechal-Foch, Angers (demolished in 1919)
• Hôtel Roy, 81 Boulevard Suchet Paris XVI (destroyed)
• Two pavilions in Hameau Boileau, 9 and 9 bis, Impasse Racine Paris XVI (heavily modified)
• Completion of Castel Béranger, 14 rue La Fontaine, Paris XVI (protected partially in 1965 and entirely in 1992)

• Completion of Castel Henriette 46 rue des Binelles, Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine (destroyed 1969)
• Completion of Villa La Bluette, Rue du Pré-de-l'Isle, Hermanville-sur-Mer, Calvados (Protected)

• Completion of Coilliot House (14, rue Fleurus, Lille) (Protected 1977)
• Edicules and balustrades of the Paris Metro from 1900 until 1903. (See Paris Métro entrances by Hector Guimard)

• Completion of Salle Humbert-de-Romans (Paris); Castel Henriette (rue des Binelles, Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine).

• Castel Val, 4 rue des Meulières, Auvers-sur-Oise;

• Castel Orgeval, 2 avenue de la Mare-Tambour, Villemoisson-sur-Orge, Esonne (protected 1975)

• Completion of the Immeuble Jassedé, 142 avenue de Versailles, Paris XVI;

• Completion of Hôtel Nazal, 52 rue de Ranelagh, Paris XVI, (modified 1957, destroyed 1957)
• Hôtel Deron Levet, 8 grande-avenue-de-la-villa-de-la-Reunion, Paris XVI, for Charles Levent (protected 1975)

• Villa La Sapinière, Rue du Pré-de-L'Isle, Hermanville-sur-Mer, Calvados (substantially remodelled)

• Completion of the Hôtel Guimard, 122 Rue Mozart and Villa Flore, Paris XVI (Protected 1964 and 1997)
• Immeuble Trémois, rue Francois-Millet, Paris XVI,
• Le Chalet Blanc, 2 rue du Lycée and 1 rue Lakanaal, Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine). (Protected in 1975)

• Hôtel Mezzara 60, rue Jean de la Fontaine, Paris XVI. (Protected in 1994).

• Completion of a four houses at 17,19,21 rue Fonaine, 43 rue Agar, Paris XVI for the Societé immobiliere de la rue Moderne, Four other houses in the project were not built.

• Synagogue de la rue Pavée à Paris 10, rue Pavée, Paris IV (protected in 1989)
• Villa Hemsy (3, rue Crillon, Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine. Later modified.

• Completion of Hotel Nicolle de Montjoye, Rue René-Bazin, Paris XVI (demolished)

• Completion of an office building for Maurice Franck begun in 1914 at 10 rue de Bretagne, Paris III

• Completion of a parking garage Rue Rober-Turqua and Rue Jasmine for his Societé générale des constructions modernes. (Demolished in 1966)

• Completion of a standardized model house for his Societé générale de onstructions modernes, 3 Square Jasmine, Pari XVI

• Completion of a Chateau Villa (Art Nouveau) and redesign/rebuild of existing estate buildings for Emile Garnier, Quettreville-Sur-Sienne (Manche)

• Guimard Building, apartment building at 18 rue Henri-Heine, Paris XVI

• Houyet building, 2 Villa Flore and 1 Avenue Mozart, Paris XVI

• Completed two apartment buildings in a real estate development at 36 and 38 rue Greuze. Paris XVI, with a tubular heating system[43]

• La Guimardière, Avenue Le Notre, Vaucresson, Hauts-de-Seine (Demolished March–April 1969)[44]