Haussmannian

Haussmannian buildings are Paris apartment blocks built to rules set under Georges-Eugène Haussmann, prefect of the Seine. Facades are of cream limestone. Building height was limited in proportion to the width of the street, and cornice lines were kept uniform, so neighboring buildings line up along a block. Continuous wrought iron balconies run along the second and fifth floors above street level. The top is a mansard roof (a roof with a steep lower slope pierced by windows) set at 45 degrees, with dormer windows for the top-floor rooms.

In the usual arrangement, shops occupied the ground floor, the largest apartment was on the floor with the long balcony, and servants slept in small rooms under the roof. Examples line the Avenue de l'Opéra and the Boulevard Saint-Germain, both completed in 1877, and the avenues radiating from the Place de l'Étoile around the Arc de Triomphe.

Emperor Napoleon III appointed Haussmann prefect of the Seine in 1853 and charged him with rebuilding Paris. Between 1853 and 1870, Haussmann's administration demolished large areas of the medieval city to cut wide, straight boulevards, and laid out parks including the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes and the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. Private developers built apartment blocks along the new streets under his rules on height, cornice lines, balconies and materials. Critics at the time attacked the cost and Haussmann's borrowing methods.

Haussmann left office in 1870, but work on his plan continued until 1927, and apartment blocks on his model kept being built until the First World War. New building regulations in 1884 and 1902 revised his rules. About 60 percent of the buildings in Paris today are Haussmannian.