List of French architects

This entry concerns French Architects.

Chronological list of French Architects

Some of their major architectural works are listed after each name.

Middle Ages

Jean de Chelles (13th century)

• Notre Dame de Paris

Pierre de Montreuil (c.1200-1266)

• Notre Dame de Paris
• the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-prés
• Saint-Denis

Villard de Honnecourt (14th century) – architecture plans

Renaissance to Revolution

Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau (c. 1510-c. 1585)

• Important book of architectural engravings.

Philibert Delorme (or De L’Orme) (1510/1515-1570)

• Château d’Anet (c.1550) – for Diane de Poitiers
• Tuileries Palace (1564-1567)

Pierre Lescot (1515-1578)

• Hôtel Carnavalet (c.1545)
• Louvre (1546) – for François I and Henri II
• Fontaine des Innocents (1550) – carved by Jean Goujon

Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau (c. 1545-1590)

• Pont Neuf (1599) – for Henri IV

Jacques II Androuet du Cerceau (c. 1550-1614)

• Galerie du Louvre
• Pavillon de Flore (Tuileries)

Salomon de Brosse (1575-1626)

• Luxembourg Palace (1615) – for Marie de Medici
• St. Gervais church (facade) (1616)
• Blérancourt
• Palais de Justice in Rennes (1618)

Jean Androuet du Cerceau (1585-1649)

• Hôtel de Sully (1624-1629)

Jacques Lemercier (1585-1654) – active for Richelieu

• Palais-Royal (1632) – for Richelieu
• The city of Richelieu (from 1631)
• La Sorbonne church (1635) – for Richelieu
• Pavillon de l’Horloge (Louvre)
• St. Roch church
• Val-de-Grâce church (1667) – responsible for the construction

François Mansart (1598-1666)

• Château de Blois (1635-8)
• Val-de-Grâce (plans) – for Anne d’Autriche (Anne of Austria)
• Château de Maisons (1642-1646)
• Hôtel Génégaud (1648-51)
• Hôtel Carnavalet (1655) - remodel
• Hôtel d’Aumont - remodel after Louis Le Vau

Louis Le Vau (1612-1670)

• Apollo wing of the Louvre
• Hôtel Lambert (1640)
• Vaux-le-Vicomte (1656) – for Nicolas Fouquet; this was to be the prototype of the palace of Versailles
• Hôtel de Lauzun (1657)
• Château de Vincennes (1659) – for Mazarin
• Palace of Versailles – reconstruction, on the model of his Vaux-le-Vicomte, as a place of fêtes
• St. Louis-en-l’île church (1664) - plans
• Institut de France – for Mazarin

Claude Perrault (1613-1688) – responsible for establishing French classicism

• Colonnade of the Louvre (1667-1673)
• Observatoire de Paris – plans

Libéral Bruant (c.1636-1697)

• Hôtel de la Salpêtrière (1660-1677)
• Les Invalides (1671-76)

Jules Hardouin Mansart (called Jules Hardouin) (1646-1708) – responsible for the massive expansion of the palace of Versailles into a permanent royal residence.

• Palace of Versailles (from 1678)
• Palace of Saint Cloud – for the Philip I, Duke of Orléans
• Château of Marly

Robert de Cotte (1656-1735) - brother in law of J.H. Mansart, whom he assisted on numerous projects

• Chapel and Esplanade of Les Invalides

Jacques Ange Gabriel (1698-1782) – responsible for rococo constructions at Versailles

• Palace of Versailles (1735-1777)
  • Apartment of the king
  • Versailles Opera
  • Library
  • Petit Trianon (1762-1764)
• Place Louis XV

Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780)

• The Panthéon

Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799)

Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) – famous for his mathematical neoclassicism.

• Farmers General Wall (1784-1791) – visible at the Place de la Nation and Denfert-Rochereau
• Hôtel d’Hallwyl (remodel)
• Les Salines Royales (Arc-et-Senans)

Revolution to World War II

Henri Labrouste (1801-1875) – famous for his use of steel

• St. Geneviève Library (1843-1861)
• National Library

Victor Baltard (1805-1874) – famous for his use of steel and glass

• Les Halles centrales (1854-1870) – destroyed in 1971 to make way for a shopping mall.
• St. Eustache (church) – remodel
• St. Etienne du Mont (church) – remodel
• St. Augustin (church) (1860-1871)

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) – important theoretician of the 19th century Gothic revival

• Château de Pierrefonds – restoration
• Notre Dame de Paris – restoration
• the city of Carcassonne – restoration
• Saint Germain-des-prés (church) – restoration
• Saint Séverin (church) – restoration

Charles Garnier (1825-1898) – celebrated architect of the Second Empire

• Paris Opera (now Opera Garnier) (1862-1875)
• Theater Marigny
• Casino of Monte Carlo (1878)

Hector Guimard (1867-1942) – Art nouveau architect and designer

Auguste Perret (1874-1954) and his brothers Claude and Gustave – important for the first use of reinforced concrete

• Theatre des Champs-Elysées

Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945) – modernist architect influenced by Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) (1887-1965)

Eugène Beaudouin (1898-1983) – influential use of prefabricated elements

Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) – international style/Bauhaus inspired

Post World War II

Christian de Portzamparc (1944-)

• La Villette - City of Music
• Café Beaubourg

Jean Nouvel (1945-)

• Institut du Monde Arabe
• Fondation Cartier