Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The 8 avenue de Verzy building is located in the Villa des Ternes, in the heart of the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Built between 1911 and 1913, it replaces two pavilions, a winter garden and an artist's workshop. The building, designed as a nine-storey reporting building, is the work of architects Maurice Coulomb and Louis Chauvet, who entrusted the decoration to the ceramicist Alexandre Bigot.

The reinforced concrete frame, filled with bricks, is covered with flamed sandstone motifs, an emblematic technique of the last years of Art Nouveau. These decorations, made up of palmettes, rosettes and garlands, adorn the bowl-windows, the entrance door and the balcony on the fifth floor. Although the colours have been partially tarnished, these elements remain a rare testimony of the decorative art of the time.

Ranked Historic Monument in 1997, the building is protected for its facades, roofs, vestibule and stairwell. It illustrates the collaboration between architects and craftsmen at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the innovative use of materials such as reinforced concrete and flaming sandstone. Alexandre Bigot, renowned ceramist, made his last known work there, marking the end of an artistic era.

The initial land, acquired in 1911 by Maurice Coulomb, consisted of several parcels (nos. 1, 3, 8, 10 and 12bis of Avenue de Verzy). This real estate project is part of the urban development of the 17th arrondissement, where residential architecture is modernized while integrating artistic elements inherited from the 19th century.

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