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The metro entranceways of Guimard
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I read an interesting article about the design of the ancient Paris metro stations. Always Arthur Gillette's research.
When the authorities planned to open the brand new Parisian metro in 1900, a design competition was organized for the entryways kiosks. A certain Hector Guimard, young architect of 32 years old, who had adapted Art Nouveau, (he discovered and learned in Brussels from Victor Horta) won the contest. And he even didn't enter the competition. Result: a cyclone, an outcry of the "presse bien pensante" (wise thinking press), One paper even thundered: "galvanized zinc ichthyosaurus skeletons".
Guimard's idea was to brighten up a little bit the daily monotony of the crowds going to work, jammed in public transports. Guimard was maybe a genius but not a fool: he had also a business sense, and marketed some of his mass produced, decorative products.
But stupidity has always been the privilege of the powerful in all times, and Guimard's metro kiosks started to be pulled down one by one beginning 1927. This continued to up to 1962, when the Bastille kiosk was torn down. Fine example of keeping a city's architectural heritage! The only originals that remain are the one at place Dauphine and one other, originally at Hotel de Ville, exiled in 1974 to the Abesses station in Montmartre.
Reason prevailed suddenly, but too late, and in 1978 all of Guimard's metro decorations were listed as a collective National Monument and refurbished.
If you ever go to Mexico city or Lisbon, you can discover Guimard style Metro entrances that have been donated to the underground railway systems of these cities.
Bibliography
-Architecture with a smile, stroll 9, by Arthur Gillette (ed. Media-Cartes June 2000)
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