Jacques Carlu (4 July 1890
Bonnières-sur-Seine - 12 March 1976 Paris) was a French
architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in
the United States.
Through the 1910s Carlu studied on site with British city planner
Thomas Hayton Mawson,
Pittsburgh architects
Palmer and
Hornbostel, and in the Paris studios of
Victor Laloux.
After winning the Prix de Rome in 1919, Carlu takes a number of
academic positions in quick succession: director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Fontainebleau,
professor of architecture at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
from 1924 to 1934, and a position with the Beaux Arts Institute of
Design in New York. With intensive transatlantic travel,
Carlu becomes a sort of ambassador of
Streamline Moderne style.
His most
famous building is likely the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro
, near the Eiffel Tower
, which was designed for the
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie
Moderne . The building's long wings now serve as museum
space, and it features sculptural groups by
Raymond Delamarre,
Carlo Sarrabezolles and
Alfred Bottiau.
His other
buildings include the 1957 NATO
Headquarters
in Paris. Among his important interiors are the 1930
Eaton
Auditorium
in Toronto (now known as "The Carlu"), the 1943
French Nationality
Room
at the University of Pittsburgh's
Cathedral of Learning
, and other venues.
Carlu is
buried at the Passy
Cemetery
. He
was the brother of French graphic designer
Jean Carlu.
External links