22

AN ARCHITECTURAL

TREASURE.

Its monumental façade features a majestic entrance pavilion,

crowned by a belfry with several bells and a clock. Three

statues adorn the building’s main pavilion. They symbolise

f inance, prudence and commerce.

Once through the porch, visitors enter the “Salle des Pas

Perdus”: a splendid 17-metre-high concourse resembling a

cross between a railway station and a Haussmann depart-

ment store, crowned by a glass roof typical of Art Nouveau

architecture.

THE ART OF

STANDING OUT.

Born into a family of building craftsmen, Édouard-Jules

Corroyer championed the recognition of the applied arts

as an integral part of architectural design from the outset.

A pupil of Viollet-le-Duc, he hired the best decorators and

ornamental designers, such as mosaic artist Giandomenico

Facchina, who trained in Venice and whose work includes

the mosaics in the Garnier opera house and the f loors of the

Galerie Vivienne. The decorative painter Charles Lameire and

the sculptor Aimé Millet also took part in the construction of

the Garnier opera house

AN ARCHITECT DRIVEN

BY A VISION.

Strolling along the Grands Boulevards, the eye is drawn to

a splendid building at the end of Rue Rougemont. This is

the former Paris Comptoir National d’Escompte.

Its construction was entrusted to architect Édouard-

Jules Corroyer. This architecturally exceptional building

was proudly presented at the Paris Exposition Universelle

in 1900.

PAGE 22

A MOST PRESTIGIOUS

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNATURE

JLL AMO INTERVIEW