Petit Palais

The Petit Palais was built for the nineteen hundred Universal Exhibition to serve as a showcase for French art. While many structures created for world fairs were intended to be temporary, the architect Charles Girault designed this building to endure. He constructed it using advanced industrial techniques of the time, including a foundation supported by forty thousand solid oak piles to protect the structure from the nearby Seine river. The building stands on a trapezoidal footprint, organized around a secluded, semi-circular garden that remains a hidden sanctuary for visitors today.