Paris...à pied, les yeux ouverts, le nez en l'air
ou l'architecture dans tous ses détails

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architect Michel Roux-Spitz

Michel Roux-Spitz (1888-1957) was a french architect who came from Lyon; awarded the Prix de Rome in 1920, he settled in Paris on his returnfrom the French Academy in Rome. At 14 rue Guyenemer (6th arrondissement), he developped the rectilinear three-sided glass bay set next to round windows which were to become one of his trade-marks. As "architecte en chef des bâtiments civils", his brief encompassed public buildings including post offices and he was responsible for the re-designing of the interior of the Bibliothèque Nationale (french National Library). After World War II, he was put in charge of rebuilding the city of Nantes.

private housing in Paris

Two of these structures are listed as historic monuments: 3 rue de la Cité Universitaire (14th arrondissement) and 14 rue Guynemer (6th arrondissement). Other buildings not illustrated here are at  14 boulevard Suchet and at 29bis rue de Montevideo (16th arrondissement) in Paris and at 45 boulevard Inkermann in Neuilly.

industrials buildings

to which should be added the Post Office at place de la Bourse (2nd arrondissement - interior unfortunately revamped in the late 70s) as well as those at 140 boulevard du Montparnasse (14th arrondissement) in Paris, in Lyon and Nantes.

buildings in the Roux-Spitz style

and there may well be many others.

cats

Deified in Ancient Egypt (they protected grain against rats and mice), cats were often associated with witches and persecuted during the Middle Ages: they were said to bring plague (in fact their fleas); a black cat was a bad omen; cats are independent and only appear when and where they want (and not often on façades!).

erotism

This can crop up where it is least expected. At 276 boulevard Raspail, the first of three medallions illustrating the ages of man on the front of an upper-class residential building dating from 1905 (when the exposure of a woman’s ankle was very osé) shows a man naked to the waist locked in passionate embrace with a young woman with equally naked breasts. Happily, this appears to be all for a good cause, since the next medallion shows the couple with a child. Others are less explicit!