From Paris to New York, we often forget that the most beautiful buildings of architectural history are often the result of constraints imposed by planning regulations of the cities. Far from limiting the creativity of architects have shaped our cities, giving them the appearance they are known by forcing the architects to use ingenuity and inventiveness. New York and Paris are certainly the two modern cities that have the strictest laws in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
What look like the capital of the hexagon when the Regulations Haussmann, 27 July 1857, stating templates allowed for facades facing the street, had not been adopted? Probably a city as diverse as Brussels, where the thirty glorious would not hesitate one second to construct the worst horrors. The settlement stated that the maximum height permitted now for future buildings would be built in Paris:
11.70 m for channels less than 7.80 m wide, 14.60 m for
lanes 7 , 80m at 9.74 m wide
15.55 m for channels from 9.75 m to 20m wide
20 meter lanes and 20m
but not exceeding 5 square floors above the ground floor. There was also clarified that all new buildings should align their balconies, eaves and roofs with other buildings in the same islets (September 21, 1855)
These regulations were amended several times: in 1882-
by allowing oriel windows from the floor noble, that is to say above the mezzanine, but must be dismantled, bow windows of wood and metal are allowed, but not beyond the ledge.
in 1893 by allowing the projections of brick or stone, but within the cornice.
in 1902, allowing the projections to go beyond the ledge, making it possible for architects to create rotundas angle to the most diverse forms. Greater height is permitted if the building is built back from the street.
In Paris these regulations were strictly applied, the evidence is that all buildings Haussmann are more or less the same height, they have 5 floors above the ground floor and mezzanine floor, a mansard roof, quite often a continuous balcony at 1st and 5th floor and up the main avenues of the Second Empire, Avenue which the opera is one of the best examples.
post-Haussmann buildings have often used the authorization of projections of 1882 and are recognizable by their bow windows of wood or metal ones after 1893 from bow windows of stone or brick.
buildings from 1902 may have a tower and a dome light, are generally higher than their neighbors, and have sometimes a balcony on the 5th floor. We will not cover the building after the war, but they respect the law of 1902 which was amended by the urban plan of 1967, one that I think disfigured the capital by allowing the construction of towers for thirty glorious who have aged poorly. These successive regulations have created modern Paris, the building and Haussmann boulevards so dear to the heart of Paris and millions of tourists that Paris attracts each year.
New York has not escaped the compass of the planner. Already, the fabric of the city was decided in 1811 and followed up today, even Central Park was planned and is on the original plan of the city in 1811, while he was in the countryside, and the streets that border it did not exist. However, he was enlarged during construction in 1853. The shape of New York skyscrapers, inseparable from the American metropolis is not
the invention of brilliant architects, but is imposed by law in 1916. After the first skyscrapers began to appear, ( Woolworth Building by Cass Gilbert, 1913, 57 floors) he was voted a law to prevent the streets from becoming too dark and poorly ventilated
. It was decided to limit the height of the building facades on the street, as was done in Paris in 1857, compared to the width of the channel on which they are constructed. It was possible for the developer to build a pyramid then, but not exceeding an imaginary axis from the middle of the street floor to maximum height of the facades facing the street. A pyramid could be built directly above the maximum height permitted but impractical architects have devised successive withdrawals or terraces, to have square floors and facilitate the opening of windows.
Unlike Paris so it was can be built over 5 floors in New york square, down, but the relationship between the template and the street remains virtually the same. The shape of the Empire State Building is thus required by the law of formers of 1916 giving it the form which gives the impression that literally pierces the sky.
An exception to the law of New York in 1916, if the building is constructed of 25% or less the island, no height limit is imposed. Is constrained by the settlement of 1916 that Mies van der Rohe imagined Seagram Building (1954-1958) in New York, The building height without removal could not be built on only 25% of the islet, so this is the city that has somehow imposed the esplanade that Mies Der Rohe Fri covered with granite and raised, as a base for this magnificent monumental column of modern times. What would have been like if this building was designed after 1961, when the settlement of 1916 was repealed? He had probably been quite similar, because of its architect, but the Seagram might have wanted to return the land by building over the soil surface, the result would have been very different.
can be read on the website of the Paris Grand suggestions bunch of ignorant people who suggest elevating buildings in the capital of the 19th century by Walter Benjamin, or even raze and build new towers, because that 'New York is more fun, or to tokyo it does so much more modern. They have forgotten that New York is a city compared to Paris recently, there existed two thousand years, with a multitude of narrow streets, a city with history, which has one of the most beautiful architectural harmony, and attracts tens of millions of visitors each year, the city the most visited in the world. They also forgot that in New York Avenues are about 45 meters wide, and that could accommodate the Eiffel tower horizontally between 5th and 6th Avenue. Proponents of the second empire, like New York would certainly have built very tall buildings if they had the elevator and the avenues for such structures. I want to remind that the first Parisian apartment buildings, floor steel dating from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, when a developer who could not source the wood plank floors decided to do with rails railways. This is not because the French did not know how to build skyscrapers steel they do not have built in the capital. Paris does not build tall buildings, because Paris is not vulgar like the young American in Paris was built in stone, Paris is a city of beauty and good taste, and serve to buildings value through its monuments prospects they create. The French were not more stupid than the Americans: they are not the cause of the Statue of Liberty, the structure was built by Eiffel and was offered the united states in 1886? They have not built the Eiffel Tower in 1889, the highest building the world until the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building
New York in 1930? If the planning laws exist is to prevent anarchy architectural, and they are simply dictated by common sense. I allow myself this digression because I realize that Parisians do not know all their history, and blinded by America, many would be willing to destroy Paris, ready to exchange it for modernity, while there are lots of towns that gladly would exchange their modernity against a bit of history. When I hear talk of building towers in the historic center of Paris, I think Plan Voisin Le Corbusier in 1925, which intended to build towers between Phillips Station east and the Seine, the Louvre and the Place de la Republique ...
Streets and Commons therefore dictate the shape of buildings. Here is a case Eloquant: The ship in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Built on a particularly broad boulevard (because it is the place of the old fortifications of Paris) in 1934, it is however still subject to municipal decree of 1902, which authorizes the projections from the main floor, including Pierre Patout took full advantage since the entire first floor has a projection of a meter on the street. The 5-storey building in a square actually 8 above the ground floor, since there is a mezzanine, and the first is 5th floors are duplexes with double-height.
Under the conditions required by the city of Paris during the sale of land to Peter Patout, it is specified that aquéreur "will build at its expense at the forefront of left field for one to tighten Service plantations (the city of Paris) closed and not covered on a frontage of 8 feet, then closed and covered with a facade of 15 meters, second part which the buyer can build a terrace garden for his personal use. "This requirement of the city explains the balcony terrace at the left end of the liner.
Then it is specified that the purchaser" will build on field a residential premises which will be leased at reasonable prices. "It certainly is for this reason that the building has two floors of duplexes of less than 50 square meters and four floors of studios under 25 meters square, all built with good materials markets, the walls are concrete, lightweight concrete floors covered cement mixed with wood fiber, the walls of clinker, a kind of mixture of residues of blast furnaces and plaster.
Another constraint rather surprising was imposed by the city of Paris: "The front side will tighten the set with successive withdrawals , plans for such construction shall be submitted to the administration "is not Peter Patout originally successive withdrawals from the tip of the liner, or the use of the building cost housing, and the room and balcony are on the far left have been imposed. If one adds that the building wife EXACTLY the terrain and the height and number of floors are set by the town, may well ask if our architect is for something in this building ... Like all masterpieces of the history of architecture, is the genius of the architect to capture the constraints and to reach the foil, to arrive creating a building that crosses modes because its beauty transcends time making quality and posterity architecture.
Patrick Gasnier
Images, from top to bottom
- L Avenue de l'Opera, Camille Pissarro
-Streets of Paris, the rain of Gustave Caillebotte (this is a rerpésentation the place of Europe)
-chart of the Department of Planning of the City of New York showing the axis beyond which a building can be constructed http://www.nyc.gov
Empire State Building, 1930-1931
-Seagram Building, 1954-1958
-Model Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier, 1925
-Residential Building, 3 boulevard Victor
-ditto-ditto
Sources: Books
American Art Deco, Duncan, Alastair, Thames and Hudson
Grammar of buildings in Paris, Claude Mignot, Parigramme
Paris nineteenth century, the building and the street, Françcois Rent, Hazan
Mies Van Der Rohe at work, Peter Carter, Phaidon
Le Corbusier Before Le Corbusier, edited by Stanislaus von Moos and Arthur Ruegg
documents: Copy of the deed of sale of land owned by the city of Paris at Pierre Patout
Websites: www.nyc.gov
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