Buckminster Knows 002




Pierre-Francois-Henri Labrouste's(1801-75) most celebrated projects: Ste Geneviève Library (1842-50) (picture above) and the reading room of The Bibliothèque Nationale (1859-68) (two pictures below). Both situated in Paris are early examples of use of cast-iron in public buildings and both considered masterpieces of the nineteenth-century. McKim, Mead, and White took the former as a model for their Boston Public Library but were not able to match Henri's radical novelty. 
If you never heard of these projects, I suggest you look them up!

picture of Ste Geneviève here
picture of Salle Labrouste here and here

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