Richard G. Foltz Architectural Rare Books Collection

The École Nationale des Beaux-Arts was the home of one of the most significant and prestigious schools of architecture in the Western hemisphere. Tracing its origins back to the Académie Royale d'Architecture, which started in 1671 under Louix IVX, the École began officially in 1863 when Emperor Napoleon III made the school independent of the government and rechristened it with the name it carries today. The École taught several influential architects, and its classically-inspired style, known as Beaux-Arts, found a warm welcome in the United States, where many significant public buildings and private residences were built with the marks of Roman and Greek inspiration. After student strikes in 1968, however, the architecture department of the École separated from the rest of the university, and the École has not taught architecture since.

Student life at the École was rigorous but intensely rewarding. Architects taught by the École were trained to create architectural renderings and submitted their work in a variety of serious design competitions. The most important of these competitions was the famous Prix de Rome, which allowed for a student to study classicism abroad in Rome. Connections like these served to solidify Beaux-Arts’ appreciation of classical aesthetics and explains the strong Roman presence in the rare books in this collection.