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| paris architecture |
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| top ten paris |
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part of the essential architecture network |
| Top Ten Essential Architecture | top ten Paris Utilities | |||||||||||||
| For a more complete list, see Paris Main List | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Paris Metro | |||||||||||||
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Constructed like the Crystal Palace out of interchangeable, prefabricated cast iron and glass parts, Guimard created his métro system in opposition to the ruling taste of French classical culture...Guimard's system flourished, emerging overnight like the manifestation of some organic force, its sinuous green cast-iron tentacles erupting from the subterranean labyrinth to support a variety of barriers, pergolas, maps, hooded light fittings and glazed canopies. These surrealistic 'dragonfly's wings'—to quote a contemporary critic—received a mixed, not to say chauvinistic, press, the verdigris colour of their iron supports being regarded as German rather than French. This imaginative attempt to render the Orphic myth in modern terms was to be complemented later by the astringent technical forms of the elevated section of the métro, built to the designs of the architect Jean Camille-Formigé and the engineer Louis Biette. |
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| 2 | Rotonde de la Villette | |||||||||||||
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The Canal St-Martin goes underground again at the place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, dominated by the Neoclassical Rotonde de la Villette, with portico and pediments surmounted by a rotunda. This was one of the toll houses designed by the architect Ledoux as part of Louis XVI's scheme to tax all goods entering the city. At that time, every road out of the city had a customs post, or barrière, linked by a six-metre-high wall, known as "Le Mur des Fermiers-Généraux" – a major irritant in the run-up to the French Revolution. Backing the toll house is an elegant aerial stretch of métro, supported by Neoclassical iron and stone pillars. |
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| 3 | Gare de l’Est | |||||||||||||
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The Gare de l'Est ("East station" in English) is one of the six large SNCF termini in Paris. It is in the Xe arrondissement, not far from the Gare du Nord, facing the boulevard de Strasbourg, part of the north-south axis of Paris created by Baron Haussmann. It is one of the largest and the oldest railway stations in Paris. |
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| 4 | Gare du Nord | |||||||||||||
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The Gare du Nord ("north station") is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF's main line network in Paris. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines (Paris Métro and RER). By number of travellers (around 180 million per year), it is the busiest station in Europe, and the third-busiest railway station in the world. The railway station serves trains to the north of France, as well as various international destinations such as the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands |
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| 5 | Gare d'Austerlitz | |||||||||||||
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The Gare d'Austerlitz (Austerlitz Station) is one of the six large terminus railway station in Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine in the southeastern part of the city, in the XIIIe arrondissement. It is the origin for the Paris-Bordeaux and Paris-Toulouse main lines, but since the introduction of the TGV Atlantique — served by the Gare Montparnasse — Austerlitz has lost most of its long-distance southwestern services. It is used by some 25 million passengers annually, about half the number passing through Montparnasse. |
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| 6 | Gare de Lyon | |||||||||||||
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The Gare de Lyon is one of the six large railway terminus in Paris, France. It is named after the city of Lyon, a stop for many long-distance trains departing here, most en route to the south of France. In general the station's SNCF services run to the south and east of France. The station also hosts regional trains and the RER. It is served by the Gare de Lyon metro station. The station was built for the World Exposition of 1900. On multiple levels, it is considered a classic example of the architecture of its time. Most notable is the large clock tower atop one corner of the station, similar in style to the clock tower of the UK Houses of Parliament, home to Big Ben. |
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| 7 | Gare Saint-Lazare | |||||||||||||
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Gare Saint Lazare is one of the six large terminus train stations of Paris. It is the second busiest behind the Gare du Nord, and serves several lines to Normandie. The Gare Saint-Lazare has been represented in a number of artworks. It attracted artists during the Impressionist period and many of them lived very close to the Gare St-Lazare during the 1870s and 1880s. |
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| 8 | Gare Montparnasse | |||||||||||||
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The Gare Montparnasse is one of the six large terminus train stations of Paris, located in the Montparnasse area, in the XVe arrondissement. The station is used for the intercity TGV trains to destinations in the west and south-west of France including Tours, Bordeaux, Rennes and Nantes. Additionally, it is served by several suburban and regional services on the Transilien Paris – Montparnasse routes. There is also a metro station, and a high-speed moving sidewalk. |
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| 9 | Usine Electrique de la Compagnie Parisienne d’Air Comprimé | |||||||||||||
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The 10th is perfect for admiring the 19th-century’s architectural shift into iron and glass construction. Huge iron beams were first used in train station architecture. The exposed iron had a machine-made, purpose-filled look which expressed the concept of progress put forward by the Industrial Revolution. Builders took advantage of the beams’ flexibility and strength to create radical innovations in construction. Architect Baltard used the metal structure of the train shed as inspiration for his famous market buildings in Les Halles. |
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| 10 | Airship Hangers | |||||||||||||
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The airship hangers at Orly, France were built by Eugene Freyssinet between 1921-1923.The program which Freyssinet needed to follow stipulated that a sphere with a radius of 25 meters had to fit, unobstructed, within the hangar. The buildings dimensions were carefully determined so that they could house the airships without much extra space resulting in unneccesary additional costs and building stresses. The hangars were destroyed in WWII by American aircraft. |
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| 11 | The Machine Hall | |||||||||||||
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Built for the 1889 International Exhibition, Paris, the centenary celebration of the French Revolution (as was the Eiffel Tower) and demolished in 1910. The machine hall at a Paris exhibition in 1889 was designed by Ferdinand Dutert. The arches of steel girders and glass panels enclosed a vast amount of space used for a machinery exhibit. |
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