Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Architectural Assortment

photo Le style et la matière
1722, 1930s, 2010-11

Three buildings, three architectural periods and one construction/renovation project 
to link them as the new improved Postal Bank's headquarters.

from left to right: hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin; postal sorting center;
new office building with a post office on the ground floor

photo Le style et la matière

Oops. Four architectural periods, in fact! This building is located behind the hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin and is part of the enormous project as well. I believe it dates to the 1880s.

views from la rue Saint-Romain


7 comments:

  1. Extraordinary. Actually, the hotel looks in 'as new' condition!

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  2. The hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin is beautiful - more to my taste than either of the buildings beside it. However, that's not the point - how they are joined, is.

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  3. Wonderful mix of high quality architecture! but where is this building?

    http://davidikus.blogspot.com/

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  4. So nice to have a reporter in Paris! One does not have to squint one's eyes too much to see New Orleans. ps Have you read Stealing Magnolias yet? You would be the perfect reviewer!

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  5. HbD: I was about to tell you to click on the images to enlarge - then I realized what you meant! Yes, there are resemblances. The overall feel is not that of the Big Easy, but the links are there! Thanks for the lead to Stealing Magnolias. Someone has to keep me up-to-date! Don't reviewers usually get the books ahead of time?!!

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  7. Alaine: They have done a beautiful job of renovating the 18th and
    19th century buildings. I hope the hotel particulier will be open to the public (it was the Postal Museum a few years back) because it is filled with beautiful decorations - Pompeian frescos and the like.

    Blue: I do agree with your choice yet I find it fascinating to find such different structures juxtaposed and even united. One immediately wonders about the life expectancy of the new building, but I suppose that way of thinking is archaic.

    Davidikus: Eye catching, n'est-ce pas? The buildings are in the 6ème on the corner of rue de Sèvres and rue Saint-Romain.

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