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49-671: The earliest known example of a mansard roof is credited to Pierre Lescot on part of the Louvre built around 1550. This roof design was popularised in the early 17th century by François Mansart (1598–1666), an accomplished architect of the French Baroque period. It became especially fashionable during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) of Napoléon III . Mansard in Europe (France, Germany and elsewhere) also means

98-601: A method of tax avoidance . One such example of this claim, from the 1914 book How to Make a Country Place , reads, "Monsieur Mansard is said to have circumvented that senseless window tax of France by adapting the windowed roof that bears his name." This is improbable in many respects: Mansart was a profligate spender of his clients' money, and while a French window tax did exist, it was enacted in 1798, 132 years after Mansart's death, and did not exempt mansard windows. Later examples suggest that either French or American buildings were taxed by their height (or number of storeys) to

147-595: A much more grandiose project with two adjoining parts; a choir for the pensioners, and a majestic domed royal church for the King. This was beyond what the Minister had proposed, but it apparently pleased the King, and, after long discussion, Hardouin-Mansart was given the project not only for the church, but for the Hôtel as well. Hardouin-Mansart briskly organized and completed the construction of residences and infirmaries for

196-599: A popular element incorporated into many designs, such as Main Building (Vassar College) , Poughkeepsie, New York, which shows a large mansard-roofed structure with two towers. The 1916 Zoning Resolution adopted by New York City promoted the use of mansard roofs; rules requiring the use of setbacks on tall buildings were conducive to the mansard design. In the 1960s and 1970s, a modernised form of mansard roof, sometimes with deep, narrow windows, became popular for both residential and commercial architecture in many areas of

245-520: A roof. In London in the 1930s, building regulations decreed that "a building (not being a church or a chapel) shall not be erected of, or be subsequently increased to, a greater height than 80 ft., exclusive of two stories in the roof, and of ornamental towers". This was to stop buildings blocking the light, and effectively mandated mansard roofs for tall buildings. The style was popularised in France by architect François Mansart (1598–1666). Although he

294-612: A special majesty to interior surfaces, particularly in the chapel of Versailles , and the interiors of the Palace of Versailles and the Grand Trianon . He was adept at creating a sense of awe, as he demonstrated especially in the dome of Les Invalides (completed 1706 ) and in the garden façade of the Palace of Versailles, and in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. On March 1, 1676, François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois ,

343-402: Is a close cousin of the mansard. Both mansard and gambrel roofs fall under the general classification of "curb roofs" (a pitched roof that slopes away from the ridge in two successive planes). The mansard is a curb hip roof , with slopes on all sides of the building, and the gambrel is a curb gable roof, with slopes on only two sides. (The curb is a horizontal, heavy timber directly under

392-484: Is also defined as an American variation of a mansard with the lower pitches nearly vertical and larger in proportion to the upper pitches. In France and Germany, no distinction is made between gambrels and mansards – they are both called "mansards". In the French language, mansarde can be a term for the style of roof, or for the garret living space, or attic , directly within it. The mansard style makes maximum use of

441-539: Is outshone by Goujon's sculpture. He was also responsible for the Château de Vallery . Lescot's career is so scantily documented that it's known whether he ever visited Italy, or if his knowledge of Italian practice was derived through the architecture and engravings issued from the School of Fontainebleau . All of Lescot's known works have sculptural decoration by Trebatti and by Jean Goujon , who collaborated with him at

490-643: The Fontaine des Innocents and the Lescot wing of the Louvre in Paris. He played an important role in introducing elements of classical architecture into French architecture. Lescot was born in Paris. King Francis I of France took him into his service, and appointed him architect in charge of the building projects at the Palais du Louvre , transforming the old château into the famous palace. A project put forward by

539-482: The Louis XIV style or French classicism . A particular skill of Hardouin was his ability to create a wide variety of structures; chateaux, churches, pavilions, private residences, parks, and urban squares. He demonstrated an ability to adapt, modify, enlarge and rehabilitate, without losing the character of the original building, but adding his own original variations on the theme, as he demonstrated in particular at

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588-478: The Minister of War , summoned Hardouin-Mansart to take over construction of Les Invalides , the enormous hospital and chapel the King was building in the center of Paris for his pensioned and wounded soldiers. The project had been begun in 1671 by Libéral Bruant , and some of the residential buildings were completed and already occupied, but the centerpiece, the chapel for the soldiers, had not been begun. The King

637-517: The Place des Victoires (1685) and Place Vendôme (1699), were designed, like his other architecture, to express the majesty and glory of Louis XIV. The Place des Victoires was built as a setting for a monument to Louis XIV , surrounded by a circle of harmonious matching residential buildings. The original statue was melted down after the Revolution, and replaced later by a copy; while the square

686-697: The 1850s, in an architectural movement known as Second Empire style . Second Empire influence spread throughout the world, frequently adopted for large civic structures such as government administration buildings and city halls , as well as hotels and railway stations . In the United States and Canada, and especially in New England , the Second Empire influence spread to family residences and mansions, often incorporated with Italianate and Gothic Revival elements. A mansard-topped tower became

735-485: The Italian architect and theorist Sebastiano Serlio was set aside in favor of Lescot's, in which three sides of a square court were to be enclosed by splendid apartments, while on the east, facing the city as it then was, the fourth side was probably destined to be lightly closed with an arcade. Festive corner pavilions of commanding height and adorned by pillars and statues were to replace the medieval towers. Elsewhere in

784-464: The King himself. In 1677, he began working on the expansion of the royal Palace of Versailles , a project which occupied him for the rest of his life. Soon afterward became a member of the Académie royale d'architecture . In 1678, he became director of the work at Versailles. and the most prominent architect in the royal entourage. He was named First Architect of the King in 1681 and was raised to

833-531: The Los Angeles area, calling his houses Hollywood Regency. The roof of two Victorian Railways hopper wagons resembled a mansard roof. The Australian Commonwealth Railways CL class locomotive also has a mansard roof. Pierre Lescot Pierre Lescot ( c.  1515 – 10 September 1578) was a French architect active during the French Renaissance . His most notable works include

882-831: The Louvre there also remain the Salle des Gardes and the Henry II staircase. His first achievements (1540 – 1545) were the rood-screen in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois , of which only some sculptures by Goujon have been saved and in Paris the Hôtel de Ligneris (1548–50, now the Musée Carnavalet , which was thoroughly altered by François Mansart ). Here and especially in the design of the Fountain of Nymphs (1547–49, illustration, right ), his moderate tectonic role

931-542: The Louvre, little was actually achieved beyond razing some of the old feudal structure. Though Lescot was confirmed in his position after the king's death by his heir Henry II , and though he worked at the Louvre project until his death, only the west side and part of the south side were completed, comprising the present southwest wing of the Cour Carré , the Aile Lescot , or "Lescot Wing" ( illustration ). Even so,

980-632: The Louvre. Unlike the other architects of the French Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance, Pierre Lescot was not from a line of masons with practical experience, but the son of a seigneur. His father, also Pierre Lescot, was sieur of Lissy-en-Brie and Clagny , not far from Versailles, seigneuries that his son Pierre inherited. Although, according to a eulogistic poem by Ronsard , Pierre Lescot busied himself zealously in his early youth making drawings and paintings, and, after his twentieth year, with mathematics and architecture, his wealth and

1029-427: The Palace of Versailles. His architecture is especially characterized by simplification; by large smooth spaces, the repetition of forms (especially arcades with semicircular arches and detached columns; long horizontals, and detached open spaces. He often used long rows of columns in front of a façade to give an air of grandeur and to hide the irregularities of the structure. He used the architectural orders to give

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1078-429: The Palace of Versailles. Much of his success was due to his ability to select and guide very talented collaborators. his collaborators included the interior designer Charles Le Brun , who designed many of the interiors of Versailles, in perfect harmony with his architecture, and Robert de Cotte , a designer who also became his brother-in-law and in 1708 became his successor, completing the major projects he had begun in

1127-589: The United States. In many cases, these are not true mansard roofs but flat on top, the sloped façade providing a way to conceal heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment from view. The style grew out of interest in postmodern stylistic elements and the "French eclectic" house style popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and in housing also offered a way to provide an upper storey despite height restrictions. Houses with mansard roofs were sometimes described as French Provincial; architect John Elgin Woolf popularised it in

1176-546: The attic or garret space itself, not just the roof shape and is often used in Europe to mean a gambrel roof. Two distinct traits of the mansard roof – steep sides and a double pitch – sometimes lead to it being confused with other roof types. Since the upper slope of a mansard roof is rarely visible from the ground, a conventional single-plane roof with steep sides may be misidentified as a mansard roof. The gambrel roof style, commonly seen in barns in North America ,

1225-448: The base of the roof, or that mansards were used to bypass zoning restrictions. This last explanation is the nearest to the truth: a Parisian law had been in place since 1783, restricting the heights of buildings to 20 metres (65 feet). The height was only measured up to the cornice line, making any living space contained in a mansard roof exempt. A 1902 revision of the law permitted building three or even four storeys within such

1274-483: The building was executed from 1546 to 1551 set the mold of French classicism: it is of two stories with an attic richly embellished with Jean Goujon 's panels of bas-reliefs; it is crowned by a sloping roof, a traditional feature of French building and practical in a rainy climate. The deeply recessed arch-headed windows of the ground story give the impression of an arcade, while the projecting central and end pavilions bear small round oeil de boeuf windows above them. In

1323-678: The church of the Val-de-Grâce , designed by his great-uncle, François Mansart and Jacques Lemercier (1645–1667), and the Collège des Quatre-Nations (1662–1670). His original plan called for a single great space under the dome, and painted decoration on the interior of the dome. However, while the work was in progress, the French army suffered reverses in the Netherlands, and the Superintendent of Finances , Colbert ,

1372-482: The death of Hardouin-Mansart. It remains his most famous work. From 1677 until his death, Hardouin-Mansart was responsible for the design and construction of much of the Palace of Versailles of Louis XIV . He succeeded the royal architect Louis Le Vau and became the surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (Superintendent of royal buildings). Beginning in 1678, he completed the "envelope" of new buildings surrounding

1421-424: The discipline control within a large, classically trained studio. Hardouin-Mansart used the mansard roof ( mansarde ), named for his great-uncle François Mansart, at the château of Dampierre-en-Yvelines, built for the duc de Chevreuse , Jean-Baptiste Colbert's son-in-law, a patron at the center of Louis XIV's court. This French Baroque château of manageable size lies entre cour et jardin as even Versailles did,

1470-663: The domed chapel of Les Invalides (1690), and the Grand Trianon of the Palace of Versailles . His monumental work was designed to glorify the reign of Louis XIV of France . Born Jules Hardouin in Paris in 1646, he studied under his renowned great-uncle François Mansart , one of the originators of the classical tradition in French architecture; Hardouin inherited Mansart's collection of plans and drawings and added Mansart's name to his own in 1668. He began his career as an entrepreneur in building construction, in partnership with his brother Michel, but then decided in 1672 to devote himself entirely to architecture. In 1674, he became one of

1519-450: The duties of his offices appear subsequently to have interfered with his artistic activity. No other documented works are identified, though a dismissive reference in the memoirs of the duc de Nevers , published long afterwards, instances "Magny" (i.e. Clagny) as "a painter who used to make inventions of masquerades and tourneys", as all court architects were expected to produce in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. At his death, Lescot

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1568-419: The end of his life he built a separate smaller one-story palace, the Grand Trianon (1687) as a refuge for the King from the noise and ceremony of the court. His final project at Versilles was the chapel (1699–1710), which was carefully integrated into the architecture of the south wing. Hardouin-Mansard was also an important urban designer, the creator of two notable Paris residential squares. Both squares,

1617-515: The group of royal architects working for Louis XIV. His first important project was the Château de Clagny , built for the King's consort, Madame de Montespan . He quickly showed he was a master of bureaucratic diplomacy as well as design and construction; he gained the protection and support of Madame de Montespan, then François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois , the Minister of War. He studied under and then collaborated with landscape designer André Le Nôtre , before finally working directly with

1666-409: The interior space of the attic and offers a simple way to add one or more storeys to an existing (or new) building without necessarily requiring any masonry . Often the decorative potential of the mansard is exploited through the use of convex or concave curvature and with elaborate dormer window surrounds. One frequently seen explanation for the popularity of the mansard style is that it served as

1715-410: The intersection of the two roof surfaces.) A significant difference between the two, for snow loading and water drainage, is that, when seen from above, gambrel roofs culminate in a long crease at the main ridge beam, whereas mansard roofs form a rectangular shaped crease, outlined by the curb beams, with a low-pitched roof inside this rectangle. French roof is often used as a synonym for a mansard but

1764-504: The nobility in 1682. He became intendant of the King in 1685, and royal inspector-general of buildings 1691, under the elderly superintendent of buildings, Villacerf , whom he finally replaced in 1699. He owed his rise not just for his ability to please his patron with his designs, but especially because of his ability to manage enormous and complex projects with many elements and designers. He would sketch out an idea; stand back and intervene and adjust when needed, from time to time to visit

1813-488: The original Château by Louis XIII , which had been begun by his predecessor, Louis Le Vau . He transformed the first-floor terrace of the Palace overlooking the garden, into the celebrated Hall of Mirrors , richly decorated by his collaborator, the artist Charles Le Brun . He also reconstructed the façade of the first floor facing the marble courtyard, giving it large arched windows and bringing in more light, and added new central residential wing, also with larger windows, for

1862-434: The paved and gravel forecourt ( cour d'honneur ) protected behind fine wrought iron double gates, and enclosed by the main block and its outbuildings ( corps de logis ), linked by balustrades, symmetrically disposed. A traditional French touch is the modest pedimented entrance flanked by boldly projecting pavilions. Behind, the central axis is extended between the former parterres , now grass. The park with formally shaped water

1911-461: The pensioners. In 1676 he began work on the choir, the portion of the church intended for the pensioners. By the summer of 1677 the roof was in place, and in April 1678 he was able to order the woodwork of the stalls, and in 1679, the cabinetry for the organ. The work on the royal chapel proceeded more slowly. Its distinctive feature was the dome, one of the earliest constructed in Paris, following

1960-636: The royal family. To house the growing number of staff and servants in the Château, he built the Grand Commun (1682–85), and for the horses and carriages of the royal household constructed two palatial stables on the city-side of the Palace (finished in 1682). His later additions to the Palace included the Orangerie (1684–86), halfway underground at the end of south wing, accessed by two monumental stairways and opening onto its own sunken garden. Toward

2009-408: The second storey slender fluted pilasters separate the windows, which alternate delicate triangular and arched pediments. Goujon's noble sculpture and architectural ornaments are cleverly subordinated to the construction, but the surviving groundfloor Salle des Caryatides (1546–49) is named for Goujon's four caryatid figures that support the musicians' gallery . Of Lescot's constructions at

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2058-424: The site, and to see that the budget was kept under control. In the latter part of his career he left more of the details to the architects who worked under him, notably Robert de Cotte , who was his chosen successor. He was given the title of Count of Sagonne in 1702, but died six months later at the royal Château de Marly . Hardouin-Mansart was the leading master of the architectural style that became known as

2107-497: The tone for the restrained French Late Baroque architectural style, somewhat chastened by academic detailing , that was influential as far as Saint Petersburg and even echoed in Constantinople . At the same time, the size of support staff in his official bureaucratic position has often raised criticisms that he was less than directly responsible for the work that was constructed under his name, criticisms that underestimate

2156-527: The virtues of the Saints and the French Kings. By 1690 a large group of sculptors was at work at statues for the niches of the façade. The war was followed by a financial crisis; work was halted entirely in 1695, and did not resume until the war ended in 1699. Once the war ended, constructed resumed, and the royal chapel was finally consecrated, in the presence of the King, on 22 August 1706, not long before

2205-405: Was much altered in later years, with the addition of traverse streets and buildings in a different style. The later Place Vendôme was a larger square, but Hardouin-Mansard broke the rigid box shape with corner buildings facing inward, decorated with ornamental pediments. His most prominent position in France put him in place to create many of the significant monuments of the period, and to set

2254-412: Was not satisfied with the plans that were offered to him by Bruant, and complained about the slowness of the work. On March 1, 1676, Louvois dismissed Bruant and summoned Hardouin-Mansart, who was little known outside the royal household, and asked him to take over the church. The chapel originally planned by Bruant for the veterans was relatively modest in size and decoration. Hardouin-Mansart proposed

2303-524: Was not the inventor of the style, his extensive and prominent use of it in his designs gave rise to the term "mansard roof", an adulteration of his name. The design tradition was continued by numerous architects, including Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646–1708), his great-nephew, who is responsible for Château de Dampierre in Dampierre-en-Yvelines . The mansard roof became popular once again during Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in

2352-399: Was slow in providing funding. Hardouin-Mansart had to modify the original plan, eliminating the painted ceiling, and redesigning the dome with an interior dome, not visible from the outside. He mounted the dome on two successive drums, giving it greater height than the earlier Paris domes. He commissioned the sculptor François Girardon to make statues illustrating the themes of the building,

2401-544: Was succeeded at the Louvre by Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau . Other outstanding architects of the French Renaissance: Jules Hardouin-Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart ( French pronunciation: [ʒyl aʁdwɛ̃ mɑ̃saʁ] ; 16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French Baroque architect and builder whose major work included the Place des Victoires (1684–1690); Place Vendôme (1690);

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