Auguste Perret

Auguste Perret (1874-1954), French architect, one of the most important pioneers of the modern French style. Perret was one of the earliest advocates of reinforced concrete as a building material; his apartment building (1902-1903) in the Rue Franklin in Paris was the first French residential building in concrete. Perret was forward-looking in his emphasis on designs that visually reveal a building's structure; his preoccupation with classical proportion links him with earlier architects, as exemplified in his Church of Notre Dame (1923) at Le Raincy. As director of the post-war rebuilding (1949-1956) of the French city of Le Havre, Perret designed a grid-like plan that was based on classical proportions, with a broad central axis, generous squares, and prefabricated housing in a uniform style.