Second Empire style,

also called NAPOLEON III, SECOND EMPIRE BAROQUE, or BEAUX-ARTS STYLE, architectural style that was dominant internationally during the second half of the 19th century. Developing from a tendency of architects of the second quarter of the 19th century to use architectural schemes drawn from the periods of the Italian Renaissance, Louis XIV, and Napoleon I to give dignity to public buildings, the style was solidified into a recognizable compositional and decorative scheme by the extension designed for the Louvre in Paris by Louis-Tullius-Joachim Visconti and Hector Lefuel in the 1850s. Given prestige by this important setting, the classical style rapidly became an "official" one for many of the new public buildings demanded by the expanding cities and their national governments. Although great variations exist, general characteristics can be identified: the building is large and, when possible, stands free; it has a square or nearly square plan with rooms disposed axially; externally, there is a profusion of classicistic detail; usually a high, often concave or convex mansard roof (having two slopes on all sides with the lower slope steeper than the upper one) breaks the profile; pavilions extend forward at the ends and in the centre and usually carry higher mansards; there is generally an overlay of a file of columns standing above a bow-shaped basement or piled one on another in several stories.

Examples of the style abound. In Vienna it was used for many buildings constructed when the Ringstrasse was developed (after 1858), such as the Opera House (designed by van der Nüll and Eduard August Siccard von Siccardsburg, 1861-69). In Italy many of the public buildings constructed after that nation's unification in 1870 followed the Second Empire pattern (e.g., Bank of Italy, Rome, designed by Gaetano Koch, 1885-92). In Germany the style characterizes most of the apartment and public buildings of the period, including the Reichstag building, Berlin (Paul Wollot, 1884-94). In the United States, representative buildings include the Old City Hall, Boston (G.F.J. Bryant and Arthur D. Gilman, 1862-65) and the State, War, and Navy Department Building, Washington, D.C. (Alfred B. Mullett with Gilman, consultant, 1871-75), as well as many mansions and county seats designed by American architects, such as Richard Morris Hunt, who followed the training of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In England the style appeared in hotels, railway stations, and warehouses, and it lingered on to underlie R. Norman Shaw's design for the Piccadilly Hotel, London (1905-08).

An important variation of the Second Empire style was the Napoleon III style, which characterizes buildings constructed during the massive rebuilding of Paris administered by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870. In the scale of their conception, these buildings seem designed more on an urban than on an individual architectural plan; thus, the extension to the Louvre (mentioned earlier), the excellent Paris Opera House (Charles Garnier, 1861-74), the railway stations, Tribunal de Commerce, and other such public buildings, by their isolation, greater size, and richer ornamentation, dominate the miles of apartment-house facades with ground-floor shops that line the many streets cutting through the city. The facades of the public buildings have in common a high elevation with mansard roofs; only the most important buildings have pavilions. The designs show a crispness of line and a subdued diversity and richness of decorative detail that sets them apart from Second Empire style elsewhere, as does their tendency to maintain a general urban homogeneity, especially throughout central Paris.

Related Propaedia Topics:

Neoclassical, Gothic Revival, late 19th century developments

Second Empire style,

Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved