The Crédit Lyonnais headquarters (the headquarters of the
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
bank
Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
, now
LCL) is a
Haussmannian style building located in the
2nd arrondissement of Paris
The 2nd arrondissement of Paris (''IIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''deuxième'' (second/the second). It is governed locall ...
. It is on the block formed by
Boulevard des Italiens
The Boulevard des Italiens () is a boulevard in Paris. It is one of the 'Grands Boulevards' in Paris, a chain of boulevards built through the former course of the Wall of Charles V and the Louis XIII Wall, which were destroyed by the orders of ...
,
rue de Gramont,
rue du Quatre-Septembre and
rue de Choiseul.
Also known as "Hôtel des Italiens", the building is still owned by LCL, although the bank left their historic headquarters in 2010 for new premises in the Parisian suburb of
Villejuif
Villejuif () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Name
The earliest reference to Villejuif appears in a bill signed by the Pope Callixtus II on 27 November 1119. It refers to Villa J ...
, next to the
VilleJuif Léo-Lagrange underground station.
Construction
* From 1883 to 2010, the headquarters of the
Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
was located on the old Boufflers hotel plot.
* 1876 – 1883: Construction of the main branch in Paris. A block of 1,590 m2 was purchased in Paris. Then, the Boufflers-Rouvenel Hotel was demolished to make way for the headquarters of
Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
, designed by the architect
William Bouwens van der Boijen
William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...
. The building was built in the
Haussmannian
Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by French Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval ...
style to impress customers and investors. The building design was as such so that it could be converted into a department store in case the bank went bankrupt.
[Christian de Montella : ''19, Bd des Italiens. Le Crédit Lyonnais, culture et fondation'', Jean-Claude Lattès editor, nov-1987, 94 p]
* 21 March 1878: The building was inaugurated in the presence of
Léon Gambetta
Léon Gambetta (; 2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French lawyer and republican politician who proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870 and played a prominent role in its early government.
Early life and education
Born in Cahors, ...
, at that time director of the Budget Committee of the National Assembly.
The building is organised around a large double spiral staircase inspired by that of the
Château de Chambord
The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with ...
. The result lives up to expectations.
Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
even distribute "authorisation to visit" tickets.
[
* 1882 : Official transfer of ]Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
's headquarters from Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
to Paris.
* 1913: Completion of construction by the architect Victor Laloux
Victor-Alexandre-Frédéric Laloux (; 15 November 1850 – 13 July 1937) was a French Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts architect and teacher.
Life
Born in Tours, Laloux studied at the Paris ''atelier'' of Louis-Jules André, with his st ...
. The building was gradually extended to the whole block between the Boulevard des Italiens, the rue de Choiseul, rue du Quatre Septembre and rue de Gramont.
Building structure
The stone cladding, a traditional symbol of wealth, conceals a metal frame, partially produced by the workshops of Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ( , ; Bonickhausen dit Eiffel; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway net ...
.
The office space is split across several floors, on either sides of a gallery that receives light via a glass partition: the entire offices are visible to the public and the management.
At each end of the building is a hall lit by a window from the workshop of Gustave Eiffel. The windows on the side of the Boulevard des Italiens
The Boulevard des Italiens () is a boulevard in Paris. It is one of the 'Grands Boulevards' in Paris, a chain of boulevards built through the former course of the Wall of Charles V and the Louis XIII Wall, which were destroyed by the orders of ...
are more impressive than those on the side of the rue du Quatre-Septembre. The offices of the bank's General Staff are located on the floors here.
The Hall of Securities at the time was designed as a metal framework by Eiffel.
Outside, on the Boulevard des Italiens, the central pavilion is inspired by the pavillon de l’Horloge
The Pavillon de l’Horloge ("Clock Pavilion"), also known as the Pavillon Sully, is a prominent architectural structure located in the center of the western wing of the Cour Carrée of the Louvre Palace in Paris. Since the late 19th century, ...
of the Palais du Louvre
The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Ger ...
. The roof is inspired from the pavillon de Flore
The Pavillon de Flore, part of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France, stands at the southwest end of the Louvre, near the Pont Royal. It was originally constructed in 1607–1610, during the reign of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion between t ...
. The pavilion has a double serlienne, a group of three bays of which the central bay is the highest with a semicircular arch, while the side bays are covered with a lintel.
The pediment, carved by Camille Lefèvre
Camille Lefèvre (1853–1933) was a French sculptor and architect.
Biography
Born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in 1870 Lefèvre became a pupil of Jules Cavelier at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 1877 and 1878, he ...
, is an allegory of banking activities: it represents the bank distributing loans, surrounded by Trade and Industry, and the rivers Rhone and the Seine. It is supported by four groups of caryatid
A caryatid ( ; ; ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient t ...
s around a large clock by sculptor Désiré-Maurice Ferrary.
When it opened, the building housed one of the first electrical installations. To provide light to the room of safes, part of the floor was composed of glass tiles manufactured by Saint-Gobain
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris as the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs, and today headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a ...
.
To impress people and encourage them to come in, a huge waiting room, lit by 310 gas burners, opened on to rows of desks in the English fashion, without screens or windows. In the same spirit of open space, the offices were not separated. "Walls are only used by employees to read their newspapers!" said Henri Germain
Henri Germain (February 19, 1824–February 2, 1905) was a French banker and politician.
Early life
Henri Germain was born on 19 February 1824 in Lyon.Jacques-Marie VaslinHenri Germain, prudent banquier du Crédit lyonnais ''Le Monde'', Augus ...
, founder of Crédit Lyonnais
The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...
. In contrast, management sat on the first floor behind doors with mahogany paneling and draperies of green reps
Reps is a small town in the Lezhë County, northwestern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Mirditë. It was the seat of the former municipality Orosh
Orosh (or ) is a small village in Mirditë within ...
. The securities service moved first from Lyon to Paris. Stocks and bonds were kept in 195 Fichet safes in the basement, surrounded by a walkway and serviced by a staircase at the top where an ashtray is marked "Put out your cigars."
The double revolution staircase
Inside the building, the Hôtel des Italiens is notable for the double helix or double spiral staircase
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...
, inspired by that of the Château de Chambord
The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with ...
and with the same objective: to allow two populations to take the same staircase without meeting, one flight (with double balustrade) for the management and the other (single balustrade) for employees.
The staircase requires half a revolution per floor. The flight of management stairs, closest to the entrance to the Boulevard des Italiens, leads to the executives and the council chamber in a revolution (the first half-revolution ends in the mezzanine floor which houses offices around the entrance halls with high ceilings).
In addition, the staircase is asymmetrical, because it has a total of seven spans traversed in a revolution: a horizontal span at the level of a floor, 3 spans of steps on the east side, a horizontal span at the level of a floor, 2 spans of steps on the west side.
The division into steps of the two flights of stairs is different:
Image:Siège_CL_balustrade_double.jpg, Double balustrade in the stairs for management
Image:Siège_CL_balustrade_simple.jpg, Simple balustrade in the stairs for employees
Image:Siège_CL_volée_direction.jpg, Stairs for management
Image:Siège_CL_volée_employés.jpg, Stairs for employees
The stone staircase continues in the form of a metal staircase from the second floor to the fourth, but always in a double revolution. The use of metal is characteristic of this industrial era. A glass roof, 30 meters above the ground, illuminates the entire staircase.
Some offices are accessible via a classic staircase on the 5th and even 6th floor inside the pavilion of honor located above the entrance to Boulevard des Italiens.
Later developments
* 30 January 1918: a German "plane bomb" exploded and damaged the wall along the rue de Choiseul near the corner with the rue du Quatre Septembre. This damage is visible today, and marked by an inscription.
* 1957: a proposal to construct a high-rise tower block of 20 floors within the old building was rejected.[ Heating, lighting and ventilation facilities were modernized.
* Early 1970s: complete renovation in the style of that time, intended to accommodate more employees on the site. The first data processing systems are installed. The securities hall, built by Eiffel, is demolished and the space used for offices.][ The offices on the ground floor no longer have windows, while those on the upper floors are organized around a small atrium, which played a central role in the subsequent fire.
* 14 May 1976: the chairman of Crédit Lyonnais, Jacques Chaine, is murdered by a deranged gunman at the entrance to the building.
* April 1996: a large part of the French film ''Le cri de la soie'' was filmed in the hall on the side of rue du Quatre-Septembre. The film was set in a department store.
* January 2013: Spring Summer 2013 show by ]Donatella Versace
Donatella Francesca Versace (; born 2 May 1955), sometimes simply referred to mononymously as Donatella, is an Italian fashion designer, businesswoman, socialite, and model. She is the sister of Gianni Versace, founder of the luxury fashion com ...
* 7 March 2015: Fall-Winter 2013 show by Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, ''Sky Arts'' ranked her the ...
1996 fire
On Sunday, 5 May 1996, a fire started in the trading room of the building. It eventually spread to burn more than two-thirds of the building.
* 8:24: a monitor reports a fire in the trading room.
* 8:26: two security officers go to the scene, firefighters are called.
* 8:32: twenty firefighters from the Saint-Honoré barracks arrive at rue de Choiseul. Doors are unlocked to let them fight the fire.
* 9:15: fire spreads rapidly in the trading room, a large space with no partitions or fire doors (to allow traders to communicate freely). More than a hundred firefighters are on site.
* 9:41: news about the fire released by Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...
.
* 11:00: the fire in the trading room seems under control.
* 11:20: the slab of the hanging garden located above the trading room collapses, and a huge blast effect creates multiple outbreaks of fire.
600 firefighters are mobilized and spend about 19 hours extinguishing the fire. Two-thirds of the building located on the side of rue du Quatre-Septembre is devastated. The safe room was partially flooded. Experts later concluded that the cause was arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
.
After the fire
After the fire, Credit Lyonnais sold the building to the insurer AIG
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...
for 1.3 billion.[
Since the beginning, the building was open to the public, who could pass through its entire length, including the main branch of the bank, an office for the staff, and the international office. After the fire, the building was divided into two separate spaces. Credit Lyonnais kept the historic part, called the "Hotel des Italiens". This is about a quarter of the building on the side of the boulevard des Italiens, which contains the director's offices, the council chamber, and the double spiral staircase. The part of the building on the side of the rue du Quatre-Septembre suffered heavy fire damage. It was renamed "Centorial", in particular to reuse the logo CL on the facade.
In summer 2008, at the request of the architect of French buildings, a large lead ornament that had been removed during restorations in the 1950s was reinstalled at the top of the main entrance, 36 m above the ground. It is a decorative piece with the ]escutcheon
Escutcheon may refer to:
* Escutcheon (heraldry), a shield or shield-shaped emblem, displaying a coat of arms
* Escutcheon (furniture), a metal plate that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder on a door
* (in medicine) the distribution of pubic ha ...
of the town of Lyon, where Credit Lyonnais was founded. It is 4.30 m wide and 3.50 m high and weighs 4 tons. It was created by Jean-Claude Duplessis, ornamental artist and Meilleur Ouvrier de France
''Meilleur Ouvrier de France'' (MOF) is a competition for craftsmen held in France every four years. The winning candidates receive a medal.
Description
The title of ''Meilleur Ouvrier de France'' is a unique and prestigious award in France, a ...
.
Centorial
After the fire, huge reconstruction work began in January 2001 by AIG French Property Fund, for the new owner of the building (Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH), under the direction of the architect Jean-Jacques Ory. These works had to combine respect for the historically listed part of the building (the large metal canopy built by Eiffel's workshops), the need for a modern office building, and the wish to preserve the original architecture.
The trading room (where the fire broke out) and the hanging garden situated above it were replaced by a long gallery with a metal canopy reminiscent of the original building's securities hall.
In 2006, the employees of the French business newspaper Les Échos left their offices on rue de la Boétie and moved into the Centorial. Some departments of LCL also have offices in the building.
Gallery
Image:Siège CL écusson.jpg, Central escutcheon reinstalled in 2008
Image:Siège central, façade 4-sept, 1913.jpg, HQ, side of rue du Quatre-Septembre in 1913
Image:Centorial D09319.jpg, The same, renamed Centorial, in March 2009
Image:Escalier_Siège_CL.jpg, The grand staircase in the 1920s
Image:Hall_principal_CL.jpg, Main hall in the 1920s
Image:Siège_CL_escalier_1er_vers_bas.jpg, The grand staircase in 2009
Image:Hall_CL_vers_Ouest.jpg, Main hall in 2009 (looking to west)
Image:Hall_CL_vers_Est.jpg, Main hall in 2009 (looking to east)
Image:Galerie_des_titres_CL.jpg, Original securities hall
Image:Galerie_CL_origine.jpg, Original main gallery
Image:Galerie_Centorial.jpg, Gallery recreated in the new building "Centorial"
Image:Centorial_frontispice.JPG, "Centorial" replaced "Credit Lyonnais" on the frontispiece of rue du 4-septembre
Image:Vestibule_4Sbre.jpg, Lobby, side rue du 4 septembre in the 1920s
Image:Vestibule_4Sbre_récent.jpg, Lobby in 2009
Image:Choiseul bombe avion.JPG, Traces of a plane bomb from 1918
References
External links
*
Images of the building about 1900 on the web site paris1900.lartnouveau
*
Official web site of the Centorial building.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Credit Lyonnais Headquarters
Buildings and structures in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris
History of Paris
Bank headquarters
Office buildings in Paris
Headquarters in France
Double spiral staircases