Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, is not the only Frenchman to have transformed the New York skyline. Small walk in the Manhattan of the hexagonal architects.
Pierre Charles the Child, St. Paul Chapel
At the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, we all know St. Paul Chapel, a survivor of the 9/11 attacks. On the other hand, we know less that it is a Frenchman, Pierre Charles the Child, who realized the glory. Born in Paris, L'Enfant arrived in America with General Lafayette. Injured, he gave up the weapons to become a planner. In the United States, the Child is best known for drawing Washington's plans. The only vestige of his work in New York, the altarpiece of St. Paul represents Mount Sinai under clouds and lightning.
Joseph-François Mangin, City Hall
Since 1811, the City Hall houses the offices of the New York City Hall. Louis XV style with columns and balconies, the building was rented by Henry James for " its taste and its perfect finishes ". Vosgien, Joseph-Francois Mangin was charged with his exterior. In New York, Mangin also worked on another building: the old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street, between Prince and Houston.
Paul-Emile Duboy, the Ansonia
Broadway and 73rd Street. We are in 1904. The Ansonia is the work of French Paul-Emile Duboy. Outside, a Haussmann facade. Inside, 1,400 rooms, restaurants, a hairdresser, a tailor, a bank, a Turkish bath, the largest indoor pool of the time and a fountain in which seals were swimming. In the walls, a network of glass tubes allows customers to send messages to staff. On the roof, a farm with five hundred chickens, ducks, six goats and a bear. Once the construction was finished, Duboy returned to France. Exhausted, he had a nervous breakdown.
Le Corbusier and the United Nations
1937. Le Corbusier publishes When the cathedrals were white, an essay where he gathers his impressions of New York. Horrified by the poverty of the population, he is nevertheless interested in the city and launches in this book the first ideas for his Radiant City. In 1947, Le Corbusier was invited to join the group of ten experts in charge of the plans of the headquarters of the United Nations. After five years of work in 1952, two of the buildings along the East River were inaugurated.
Jean Nouvel, the 53W53
You are at MoMA, raise your head. In front of you a colossus under construction: the 53W53, imagined by the French Jean Nouvel. The skyscraper is New York's third creation, after 40 Mercer Street and 100 11th Avenue. Initially, the architect wanted him among the highest in the city, as high as the Empire State. With 82 floors, he will have to settle for seventh place. 53W53 will host an extension of MoMA as well as apartments. Count around $ 7 million for a three-room apartment and $ 64 million for a penthouse.
Christian de Portzamparc, One57, Prism Tower, LVMH Tower
Today, Christian de Portzamparc, the first French architect to receive the prestigious Pritzker Prize, has three buildings in New York: with its white sandblasted glass facade, the New York headquarters of LVMH is located at 19 East 57th Street; One 57, 300-meter-high tower overlooks Central Park. It is the tallest residential building in the city; Prism Tower, a beautiful apartment building, is located at the corner of Park Avenue and 28th Street.
