Life

Roux-Spitz was born 13 June 1888 in Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

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The son of an architect, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Lyon in the studio of Tony Garnier

Tony Garnier (architect)

Tony Garnier was a noted architect and city planner. He was most active in his hometown of Lyon.Garnier is considered the forerunner of 20th century French architects...

 and then became a student in the workshop of Gaston Redon

Gaston Redon

Gaston Redon was a French architect, teacher, and graphic artist. Redon was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine to a prosperous family, the younger brother of Odilon Redon. Gaston attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André, and took the Prix de Rome for architecture in 1883...

 and Alfred Henry Recoura at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris.
He won the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 in 1920.
He moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on his return from Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in 1924. Influenced by Auguste Perret

Auguste Perret

Auguste Perret was a French architect and a world leader and specialist in reinforced concrete construction. In 2005 his post-WWII reconstruction of Le Havre was declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites....

, he made ​​a characteristic building of his style - with bay windows to 3 sides on the front - at 14 Guynemer street in Paris.
He repeated that form in several works, such as the Quai d'Orsay, known as the "White Series".

He was appointed editor in chief of The Architect between 1925 and 1932, then joined the Board of Patrons of the journal L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui in 1930. He again became editor of the French magazine Architecture between 1943 and 1950.
Roux-Spitz used these various forums to defend the position of modern architects, but opposed the radical principles of Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

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He was also a professor of theory at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts

The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...

 in 1940.

Official duties included chief architect of civil buildings and national palaces, and architect of the postal services.
He was chief architect of the National Library in 1932 and remained so until 1953, in this post making ​​a rearrangement within the current Richelieu site and construction of an annex to Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

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On 29 March 1945, he was appointed chief architect for reconstruction of the township of Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

. His reconstruction plan was finally approved in 1947.

Roux-Spitz died on 15 July 1957 at Dinard

Dinard

Dinard is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in north-western France.Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a popular holiday destination, and this has resulted in the town having a variety of famous visitors and residents...

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Key achievements

• 1924: Tombstone of Andrew Bouxin, Aubenton ( Aisne )
• 1925: Castle Choulans or Turrets, current Cervantes Institute in Lyon
• 1925-1928: 14 rue Guynemer building in the 6th arrondissement of Paris (inscribed MH)
• 1924-1929: Theatre de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon
• 1928: Dental School Lyon
• 1928-1930: Monument "In Defence of the Suez Canal", Ismailia ( Egypt )
• 1929: Building 89 Quai d'Orsay, 22 rue Cognac-Jay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris
• 1929-1931: Building 115 avenue Henri-Martin / St-Octave Feuillet in the 16th arrondissement of Paris
• 1930: 45-47 Boulevard building of Inkerman in Neuilly-sur-Seine (included MH)
• 1930: Building of homes and artists' studios, 3 rue de la Cité Universitaire in the 14th arrondissement of Paris (inscribed MH)
• 1930: expansion of the engineering works to Delachaux Gennevilliers ( Hauts-de-Seine )
• 1931: Post Office-Paris Bourse
• 1931-1933: National School of Ceramics, attached to the National Manufactory of Sevres
• 1932: Annex to the National Library in Versailles
• 1932-1935: Central Cheque Postal rue des Favorites, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris
• 1935-1938: Post Hotel in Lyon
• 1938: Villa "Greystone", facing the sea at Dinard (owned by the architect)
• 1947-1949: City of blast pavements, street paving in high- Nantes
• 1948-1950: Regional Directorate of PTT in Paris
• 1949-1955: development of Place Brittany in Nantes
• 1951-1964: CHU - Hôtel-Dieu de Nantes , finished by his collaborator Yves Liberge and his son Jean Roux-Spitz
• 1955-1961: Hospital of Dijon completed by Jean Roux-Spitz
• 1956-1959: City Hall, St. Nazaire

Writings by the architect

• Michel Roux-Spitz, "Against the new formalism," in L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui No. 3, April 1932, p. 61-63 reprinted: "Against the new formalism," followed by "Towards a new order ..." , ed. Altamira, 1994.

Written about the architect

siècle n°6, 1985}}

• Michel Roux-Spitz : réalisations, Préfacier Jean PORCHER & Julien CAIN, éd. Vincent, Fréal, & Cie, [1933]-1959, 3 Vol.
• Simon Texier, "Michel Roux-Spitz : les paradoxes de la série blanche", in Éric Lapierre (dir.), Identification d’une ville : architectures de Paris, éd. Picard/Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 2002, p. 126-137.