Misplaced Pages

#59940

26-399: The architect, Jules Lavirotte, had already built two buildings in the same neighborhood of the 7th arrondissement; a private residence at 12 Rue Sédillot (now a school) and an apartment building at 3 Square Rapp, where he had his own apartment on the fifth floor. Both of these buildings had some of the fantasy and art nouveau elements for which Lavirotte was famous, but none were as exuberant as

52-415: A site with architectural heritage significance. Additionally, many restoration projects require the involvement of a structural engineer to determine if the proposed modifications and treatments might negatively impact the structural integrity of the building or surrounding elements, or if additional building permits and inspections might be necessary before undertaking the work. At the international level,

78-650: A small interior courtyard, which is more simply decorated than the facade, but has sculpted art nouveau lintels around the windows. It combined elements of Baroque with vegetal and floral patterns, and highly ornamental ironwork. The architectural critic Gilles Plum wrote in 2014: "The building of Jules Lavirotte is a rare example of free composition pushed to the limits, with expensive materials giving rich plastic effects." 48°51′33″N 2°18′03″E  /  48.85912°N 2.30091°E  / 48.85912; 2.30091 Base M%C3%A9rim%C3%A9e The Base Mérimée ( French pronunciation: [baz meʁime] )

104-991: A threat to the integrity of the historic sites if poorly managed or insufficient preventative conservation measures are in place. Ongoing assessments and monitoring of architectural heritage sites help maintenance and restoration personnel identify architectural elements that are in a stable state of conservation and which elements are in need of treatments and restorations. These ongoing assessments might include wood treatments, historic paint analyses, pest and rodent control, and monitoring of temperature and relative humidity. Architectural preservation treatments can run from smaller scale restorations to major reconstructions. Smaller scale restorations might include repainting and refinishing surfaces, environmental barriers, water gilding, sandblasting fixtures, and repairing utility connections, such as electrical wires and plumbing pipes. Larger scale restorations and reconstructions might seek to demolish architectural elements or portions of buildings in

130-548: A unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or civilization which is living or has disappeared, and being an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural, or technical ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history. Locations inscribed on the World Heritage List can be eligible to receive funds from the World Heritage Fund to help protect

156-571: A variety of other disciplines through such methods as surveys, delineations, measurements, drawings, and renderings to depict existing structures of historical significance or heritage value, study and conservation of past drawings, blueprints, and renderings of existing and past buildings, and geospatial surveys and scans of historic or archaeological sites, including satellite images, photogrammetry, LIDAR scans, and SONAR renderings of underwater submerged archaeological sites. Surveys, delineations, drawings, and renderings, when properly conserved as part of

182-407: Is a form of tangible and immovable cultural heritage centered around the documentation and preservation of the built environment of existing and past buildings and structures built for residential, commercial, industrial, defensive, governmental, and spiritual purposes. These buildings and structures can vary widely in size, sophistication, and design based upon the resources and materials available at

208-401: Is no evidence that Bigot ever lived there. Nonetheless, the building did become a very effective showcase of the glazed earthenware tiles that he developed, which were later used in other notable Art Nouveau buildings. The ceramic tiles and sculpture turned the building into a work of art, a large piece of sculpture. Lavirotte used several innovations in the construction of the building. Some of

234-597: Is the database of French monumental and architectural heritage , created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture . It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995. The database is periodically updated, and contains more than 320,000 entries as of October 2020. It covers religious, domestic, agricultural, educational, military and industrial architecture, and is subdivided into three domains: historical monuments , general inventory, and architecture (including remarkable contemporary architecture). The database

260-763: The Ceramic Hotel in 1905. The facade of the ground floor and first floor are relatively simply decorated compared with the upper floors. The centerpiece is the extravagant doorway, framed with statues of Adam and Eve, a woman's head (said to be the wife of Lavirotte, the painter Jane de Montchenu), and vegetal designs. The doors are decorated with wrought iron lizards.. The windows of the first floor are richly sculptured. The upper floors are entirely faced with glazed and colored ceramic tiles, with lavish sculptural decoration, vegetal and animal themes, curved windows, curling wrought iron railings and picturesque balconies. Some observers claim to have found many erotic elements in

286-554: The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization administers the World Heritage Program to identify locations whose architectural or natural heritage, or some combination thereof, have outstanding universal value measured against a set of ten criteria, including representation of masterpieces of human creative genius, exhibiting important interchanges of human values, bearing

SECTION 10

#1732773213060

312-683: The architectural heritage sites, which is funded from voluntary and involuntary contributions from the state parties to the World Heritage Convention. Most nations have a mechanism to identify historic buildings and heritage sites of national or regional significance which should be protected from unauthorized demolition or alteration, such as the United States Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places. Additionally, some nations, such as

338-410: The building features much art nouveau decoration, but is more subdued than the exterior. The vestibule is decorated with curved archways supported on marble columns, with short stairways leading to an apartment (now a dentist's office) on one side and to the main stairway on the other. The stairway is the central decorative of the interior; the entrance has a door decorated with wrought iron and glass, and

364-412: The buildings to become buried under sedimentation or ash deposits, if once land based archaeological sites have become buried underwater due to rising sea levels or geological shifts, or in the event the site is simply too inaccessible to be physically accessed by researchers due to excessive vegetation cover or rough and jagged terrain. These delineations, surveys, and scans can help researchers understand

390-620: The cultural significance or physical rarity of a particular type of architectural structure. Additionally, the historic and prehistoric interactions between humans, the environment, land and sea usage, and interaction with other cultures can play a significant role in the development of stages of civilization and human history, including traditions, ideas, beliefs, and artistic and literary works that can display human creative genius and outstanding universal significance. Architectural heritage can be studied by architects, architectural historians, cultural historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and

416-478: The documentary heritage of the architectural tradition, can be digitized to help ensure their conservation and communication in the event of the original copy or the extant structure being destroyed. Geospatial surveys and scans can also help researchers see evidence of historic or prehistoric structures that might not be visible to the naked eye, for example if only foundations of the structures remain underground, if geological shifts or volcanic eruptions have caused

442-492: The facade, including Adam and Eve, and a multitude of phallic symbols in the decoration, including the sculptures over the top-floor windows, sculpture, and the sculpted iron lizards on the doors (a term in Parisian argot for a male sexual organ), as well as in the shape of the front door, which they claim are in the form of the female sexual organ (See external links below). However, others see simply decoration. The interior of

468-402: The interest of restoring the overall structure to an earlier state which better represents a period in history which the architectural significance of the building is better associated with. Similar to any form of tangible cultural property, architects, restorers, historic site and museum professionals always recommend involving a conservator before undertaking any major restoration projects on

494-402: The model for apartment buildings created by Georges-Eugène Haussmann during the reign of Napoléon III , which later critics found monotonous. In giving the award to Lavirotte, the jury declared, "the ensemble of the facade, which produces a very agreeable effect, certainly contributes to the decoration of the grand boulevard on which it is constructed. Lavirotte won the prize two more times, for

520-535: The new building. Some sources, including the Base Mérimée , the official list of French historic monuments, state that the building was owned by Alexandre Bigot , a chemistry professor turned entrepreneur who was the first in France to manufacture glazed ceramic tiles, an ancient technique he borrowed from China. However, the construction permit shows the building was owned by Lavirotte and Charles Combes, and there

546-404: The railing of the stairway is made up of undulating iron work in exotic vegetal forms. The ground floor also features finely-crafted stonework and sculptural detail. The walls of the stairway are decorated with art nouveau floral designs in subdued browns, golds and reds. At the top of the stairway, another smaller stairway leads to the rooftop terrace. A covered passage on the street level leads to

SECTION 20

#1732773213060

572-421: The time of construction and the cultural understanding of historical precedents and collective memory of architectural styles known to the architects and builders at the time of design and construction. These historic buildings and archaeological sites can illustrate the spatial arrangements and sociocultural interactions influenced by the built environments of historic times, and can vary in importance based upon

598-560: The types of buildings and structures historic and prehistoric people built, as well as what they show about how people interacted with each other and their environment. Architectural heritage sites can be threatened by a number of human and natural threats, such as armed conflicts, lack of preservation or conservation measures, demolition or excessive modification, exposure to environmental elements, and natural disasters such as hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and excessive winds. Additionally, excessive tourism can also pose

624-427: The walls were built with an early form of reinforced concrete. The bricks were hollow; once they had been put in place, metal wires or rods were run through them to secure them and then they were filled with concrete. In addition, Lavirotte built the walls in two layers with an air space between, to provide more effective soundproofing. A team of craftsmen was responsible for the construction and decoration; The ironwork

650-738: Was made by Dondelinger; the sculptural decoration, designed by Lavirotte, was done by Théobald-Joseph Sporrer, Firmin Michelet and Alfred-Jean Halou. The sculpture around the front doorway was by Jean-Baptiste Larrivé. The Lavirotte building was listed as an historic monument in 1964. Like his contemporary, Hector Guimard , Lavirotte was catapulted to fame when the building was a winner in the Paris competition of new facades of 1901 (the Concours de façades de la ville de Paris ). The competition had been created to encourage Paris architects to break away from

676-493: Was named after writer, historian and inspector-general of historical monuments Prosper Mérimée , who published the first survey of historic monuments in 1840. [REDACTED] Media related to Base Mérimée at Wikimedia Commons This article about a French building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This website-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Architectural heritage Architectural heritage

#59940