Lucien Bechmann

Adolphe Lucien Bechmann ( born July 25, 1880 in Paris, † October 29, 1968 ) was a French architect in Paris, Hôpital Rothschild, Synagogue Chasseloup - Laubat and the Shell building near the Avenue des Champs- Élysées has built.

Family

Lucien Bechmann came from a Jewish family and was the son of Georges Bechmann (1848-1927), an engineer from the École Polytechnique, who was involved in the construction of the north-south line of the Paris Métro. 1903 married Lucien Bechmann Germaine Kapferer, with whom he had five children, of whom two architects were: Geneviève Dreyfus Sée and Roland Bechmann.

Career

1898 Lucien Bechmann at art school ( Ecole des Beaux -Arts ) in Paris was recorded. One of his teachers was Victor Laloux (1850-1937), architect of the Orsay railway station (now the Musée d' Orsay ) in Paris. His first apartment building built Lucien Bechmann at the age of 26 years in Paris, in the Rue de Vignes No. 60, where he established his home and his office. The building was equipped with gas, electricity, elevators and central heating.

Much of his client belonged to the Jewish community, as Edmond de Rothschild, Pierre de Günzbourg or German Émile de la Meurthe. In 1906 he traveled on behalf of Edmond de Rothschild with the doctor Léon Zadoc Kahn to England, Germany and Austria, and visited with him the latest hospitals. For Edmond de Rothschild, he realized the new building of the Hôpital Rothschild, which had been founded by his father, Baron James de Rothschild in 1852. Léon Zadoc Kahn was the head doctor of the hospital until his deportation in 1942. 's Hospital is an ensemble of 13 individual pavilions, which are built of natural stone and brick. A construction from natural stone and brick is also the synagogue Chasseloup - Laubat in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the Lucien Bechmann also designed on behalf of Edmond de Rothschild and was inaugurated in 1913. Bechmann used a wooden structure with wooden beams for the interior of the synagogue as the galleries and the open roof of the lantern.

1911 Lucien Bechmann built for himself and his family in Jouy -en- Josas, a western suburb of Paris, a country house, Le Vallon, in the Norman style. Following the example of his own house he designed for Pierre de Garches Günzbourg in a larger country house Les Quatre Vents, a construction of partially plastered bricks and timber, in which a music school is housed.

1912 was Lucien Bechmann by the Société du Chemin de Fer ƒlectrique North -Sud de Paris commissioned to build an underground hall under the Place du Havre for the metro station Saint- Lazare line north-south, was involved in the construction Lucien's father.

During the First World War, Lucien Bechmann reported as a volunteer and took part in the Battle of Verdun. In 1917 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

After the First World War, after Bechmanns designs built of brick social housing developed in the Rue Claude- Decaen in the 12th arrondissement, on the outskirts of Paris. From the patron Pierre de Günzbourg Lucien Bechmann in 1920 was awarded the contract to build an operating room for the Hôpital Saint -Michel in the 15th arrondissement. He provided him with a glass dome, which was surrounded by a public gallery, could be traced from which the operation. About microphones the comments of the surgeons were forwarded.

His most extensive contract between the two world wars was the building of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, for Lucien Bechman designed the overall concept and realized the pavilions of the Fondation Émile and Louise de la Meurthe and the German Pavillon André Honnorat. The Cité Internationale Universitaire goes back to a foundation of German Émile de la Meurthe, who donated ten million francs for the construction of 350 student apartments, 1922, the University of Paris. He was assisted by André Honnorat, then Minister of Education. The French government provided for the construction of an area of nine hectares on Boulevard Jourdan, on the southern outskirts of Paris, is available. The installation of the Cité Universitaire was inspired by English and American campus colleges that Lucien Bechmann met on a trip to the U.S. in November / December 1927. Originally came also the design for the main building, Maison Internationale, by Lucien Bechmann. The building was, however, realized according to the plans of an American architect, the new financiers John D. Rockefeller prevailed. Bechmann remained a consultant. From 1932 to 1933 he built at the Cité Internationale Universitaire the entrance pavilions and in 1950 another student residence, the Fondation Victor Lyon.

One of the biggest office building in Paris was the Shell building, Lucien Bechmann in collaboration with the architect Maurice Chatenay the early 1930s between the streets Rue Washington, Rue d' Artois and Rue de Berri in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, near the Avenue des Champs- Élysées, built. The building with eight floors and a total floor area of 60 000 m² is a construction with a core of reinforced concrete. The facade, the vertical lines are accented by massive pillars is decorated in Art Deco style. Each of the six inner courtyards has an area of over 350 m², the garage can accommodate 300 vehicles. Attention at that time was particularly its completion in just 62 working days, three days earlier than planned. This was made possible by the use of prefabricated parts and the exact planning of the delivery of materials.

The years between 1941 and 1944 spent Lucien Bechmann in Dauphiné on a farm near Grenoble. 1946 Lucien Bechmann was appointed chief architect for the reconstruction of Nord. In 1950 he realized in Douai a house on the Place de la Gare. One of his last projects, in which he collaborated with his son Roland Bechmann, was the Garden City Clos - d'Origny in Massy, a complex of social housing in the south-west to Paris department Essonne.

Prizes and awards

Structures

Writings

La Cité universitaire de Paris. Rapport présenté au Congrès international d' urbanisme. Strasbourg 1923.
La Cité universitaire de Madrid. In: L'Architecture. No. 2, 1930, pp. 45-48.
A propos d' un grand chan animal. L' immeuble Shell à Paris. In: L' Entreprise française. Mai 1931.
La Cité universitaire de Paris. In: La Construction moderne. Dezember 1936.
Quelques opinions sur la Préfabrication et l' industrialization du bâtiment. In: L' Architecture d' aujourd'hui. No. 4, 1946, p 13
La Cité universitaire de Paris fête son jubilé. In: La Construction moderne. No. 6, June 1950, pp. 212-222.
L' Immeuble commercial Shell à Paris. In: Science and industry. Mai 1953.

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