Winner of the 1905 Concours de Façades de la ville de Paris, this weird building located in the avenue de Wagram, # 34 is remarkable in many ways. First of all, it shows how brilliant & interesting can be the technique which Lavirotte had specialized in : the complete wall covering of the front in ceramic. It is also located in an area which was not as fashionable in 1904 as it is today ; so its front emphasizes in some sort of way its owner's will to astound without spending too much money in advertisement... One can easily understand thus why on the one hand it seems luxuous (the front being, however, of a rather very bad taste !) & on the other hand the inside of the hotel is of a much more modest type.

Specialists usually remember the ceramic facing instead of the forms of the architecture in themselves (which seemed already very dubious in 1904). Nevertheless, it seems to me that the bold composition of the volumes is the most praiseworthy part of the building, since it announces the yet-to-come orientations in architecture design.

At the time it was built, the Ceramic Hotel was a lodging house (a brothel according to the legend... ) & became a much more respectable hotel around de '70s. The inside spaces have been totally denatured due to this new affectation, yet they have been rearranged in a very delicate Belle Epoque fashion.

Besides Lavirotte's own name, two of his associates are credited on the front :

Camille Alaphilippe (his capital "A" is masked by mortar), 1er Prix de Rome (not of a very high scholar value but prestigious enough to secure many commissioned works) who sculpted the massive floral patterns of the front.

Alexandre Bigot, one of Lavirotte's regular fellow workers (cf. blocks of flats avenue & sq. Rapp ; private house avenue de Messine), is famous for his dedication for ornamental or fonctionnal stoneware, which made him able to develop many inventions related to the use of ceramic in architecture & thus working with architects as different as Henri Sauvage, Lavirotte, Perret or Arfvidson.

(Many thanks to Mr Jean-Pierre Dominici for his welcome.)

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