Built by the Perret brothers between 1930 and 1933, the building at 51-55 rue Raynouard proudly dominates the garden of Balzac’s house.
Auguste Perret left the building at 25bis, Rue Franklin, built in 1903-1904, to move his offices to the ground floor of the new premises and maintained his apartment with views of the Seine on the 7th floor, until his death in 1954.
The office of the architects and the public and private construction company ‘Perret Brothers’ comprised the architects Auguste Perret (1874-1954) and Gustave Perret (1876-1952) as well as Claude Perret (1880-1960), contractor. They inherited a knowledge of the construction business from their father, Claude-Marie, which they used to found Perret Brothers , one of the foremost firms of the first half of the 20th century. From 1890 to 1954, they developed a new classicism based on reinforced concrete, which was then, at the beginning of their careers, still an experimental material. They had mastered it already at 25bis rue Franklin. At the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in 1913, they took advantage of the freedom that the use of concrete brought to forms and structures, creating a revolution in construction. (concrete: sand, gravel, cement). The building has a sober classical facade, all in concrete except for the sculpture over the entrance by André Abbal. The monumental spiral staircase and the huge bands of windows, which look out on the rue Berton, have made it one of the icons of 20th-century architecture.
