Pierre-Alexis Delamair (; 1675/6 in

Châtenay-Malabry Châtenay-Malabry () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris. The French writer Chateaubriand lived in the estate ''Vallée-aux-Loups'' at Châtenay-Malabry. The Ga ...

– 25 July 1745 in

Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. Location Agde is located on the Hérault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi conne ...

) was a French architect, theorist and

city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

, whose ambitious plan for a rational restructuring of the center of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, 1737, never came to fruition, as it would have required the demolition of the existing city to be replaced with an ideal city. Delamair was the son of Antoine Delamaire, and received his training in the

Bâtiments du Roi The Bâtiments du Roi (, "King's Buildings") was a division of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household") in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris. History The Bâtiments ...

, directed by Robert de Cotte. His three works on architecture remained in manuscript. In one, Delamair proposed in 1725 enlarging and connecting as one, the three islands in the Seine, the

Île de la Cité Île de la Cité (; English: City Island) is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace ...

, the

Île Saint-Louis Île Saint-Louis (), in size, is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France (the other natural island is the Île de la Cité, where Notre-Dame de Paris is located). Île Saint-Louis is connected to the rest of Paris by ...

, and the Île Louvier, to make a single ''Île de Paris'' that would make a more suitable site for the Hôtel de Ville. The idea was taken up by

Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux (Paris 1727 — Paris 1793) was a pioneering French neoclassical architect. Training Though he did not gain the Prix de Rome that was the dependable gateway to a prominent French career in architecture, his fellow-s ...

in 1769 and expanded towards the end of the 18th century by

Pierre Patte Pierre Patte (1723–1814) was a French architect who was the assistant of the great French teacher of architecture, Jacques-François Blondel, whose ''Cours d'architecturewhich ran to nine volumes by 1777, he saw through the press after Blondel's ...

and by

Charles De Wailly Charles de Wailly () (9 November 1730 – 2 November 1798) was a French architect and urbanist, and furniture designer, one of the principals in the Neoclassical revival of the Antique. His major work was the Théâtre de l'Odéon for the Comédi ...

. Delamair completed three '' hôtels particuliers'', the

Hôtel de Soubise The Hôtel de Soubise () is a city mansion '' entre cour et jardin'' (), located at 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. History The Hôtel de Soubise was built for the Prince and Princess de Soubise on the sit ...

at Paris (1704–1709), for François de Rohan, prince de Soubise, and the adjoining

Hôtel de Rohan The Archives nationales (, "National Archives" in English; abbreviated AN) are the national archives of France. They preserve the archives of the French state, apart from the archives of the Ministry of Armed Forces and Ministry of Foreign Aff ...

(1705–1708), built for Soubise's son, Armand-Gaston, bishop of Strasbourg, and revisions to the former Palais Rohan at Strasbourg (1705–1708, demolished within Delamair's lifetime for the present structure). His replacement at the Rohan houses by

Germain Boffrand Germain Boffrand () (16 May 1667 – 19 March 1754) was a French architect. A pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the '' style Régence'', and in his interiors, of the ...

, at the moment of his precocious triumph, left him an embittered man.Fiske Kimball, ''The Creation of the Rococo'', 1943; p. 93; Kimball refers to Delamair's "secondary rôle".

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delamair, Pierre Alexis 1675 births 1745 deaths 18th-century French architects Architects from Paris