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Architectural style · c. 1830–1920, peaking c. 1880–1920

Beaux-Arts

Grand staircases, sculpture and axes that draw the eye through a whole city. Beaux-Arts is the architecture school's style – learned in Paris and built across the world.

How to spot it Find it in the app

The style in timeDrag to travel in time

  1. Zigguratc. 2200–500 BC
  2. Ancient Greek architecturec. 700–30 BC
  3. Roman architecturec. 500 BC–AD 400
  4. Nabataean architecturec. 300 BC–AD 106
  5. Byzantine architecturec. 330–1453 in the Eastern Roman Empire
  6. Moorish architecture8th–15th century in al-Andalus and North Africa
  7. Carolingian architecturec. 780–900 in the Frankish Empire
  8. Novgorod and Pskovc. 1045–1600 in north-western Russia
  9. Norman architecturec. 1050–1200
  10. Romanesquec. 1050–1250
  11. Mudéjarc. 1100–1600
  12. Gothicc. 1235–1530
  13. Brick Gothicc. 1250–1530
  14. Late Gothicc. 1400–1530
  15. Manuelinec. 1490–1530
  16. Renaissancec. 1520–1650
  17. Palladian architecturec. 1550–1800
  18. Dutch Renaissancec. 1560–1650 in the Netherlands and Flanders
  19. Baroquec. 1640–1730
  20. Carolean Baroquec. 1680–1720
  21. Georgian architecture1714–1830
  22. Rocococ. 1730–1775
  23. Neoclassicismc. 1750–1850
  24. Gustavianc. 1772–1810
  25. Karl Johan stylec. 1810–1850
  26. Victorian architecture1837–1901
  27. Gothic Revivalc. 1840–1910
  28. Historicismc. 1840–1900
  29. Industrial architecturec. 1850–1950
  30. Neo-Renaissancec. 1850–1900
  31. Swiss chalet stylec. 1850–1900
  32. Landshövdingehus1875–1945
  33. Neo-Baroquec. 1880–1910
  34. Beaux-Artsc. 1830–1920
  35. National Romanticismc. 1890–1920
  36. Art Nouveauc. 1896–1914
  37. Art Decoc. 1910–1940
  38. 1910s Neoclassicismc. 1910–1920
  39. Bauhaus1919–1933
  40. Swedish Gracec. 1920–1930
  41. Functionalismc. 1930–1950
  42. Socialist classicismc. 1933–1955
  43. Post-war Swedish modernismc. 1940–1960
  44. Brutalismc. 1950–1975
  45. The Record Yearsc. 1955–1975
  46. The Million Programme1965–1974
  47. DeconstructivismFrom the 1980s
  48. Postmodernismc. 1980–1995
  49. LonghouseStone Age to Viking Age
  50. Log houseThe Middle Ages onwards
  51. Raised storehouseIron Age to 20th century
  52. Swedish vernacularc. 1600–1900
  53. Croft and cottagec. 1700–1900
  54. Decorated farmhouses of Hälsinglandc. 1700–1900
  55. Half-timberingThe Middle Ages to the 19th century
  56. Sámi goahtiFrom prehistory to the present day
  57. Seljuk architecturec. 1040–1300
  58. Persian architectureIran
  59. British Colonialc. 1700–1950 in the British Empire

01. Learned in Paris

The name comes from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where architects from all over the world train in the 19th century. There they learn to design big: symmetrical, with a clear main axis, a hierarchy of grand rooms and façades drawing on French classicism, Renaissance and Baroque – but with iron, glass and later steel behind the stone.

The style peaks under the Second Empire and the Third Republic. Charles Garnier's opera house in Paris, the Palais Garnier, is built in 1860–1875, and for the 1900 World's Fair the Grand Palais and Charles Girault's Petit Palais rise.

American architects who studied in Paris bring the style home. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City", sparks the City Beautiful movement, which wants to make American cities monumental with parks, axes and public palaces. The New York Public Library is completed in 1911 and Grand Central Terminal in 1913.

With modernism the style goes out of fashion after the First World War – but the school in Paris keeps teaching in the same spirit until 1968.

02. How to spot it

  • 1.Symmetry and a clear main axis
  • 2.Grand staircases, entrance halls and state rooms
  • 3.A rusticated ground floor and arched windows
  • 4.Rich sculpture, cartouches, garlands and balustrades
  • 5.Iron, glass and steel behind the stone façade

03. The giveaway

The staircase. If a broad, stately flight of steps leads up to a symmetrical, sculpture-laden entrance on a building from around 1900, Beaux-Arts is the likely answer.

Read the façade

  1. A cartouche above the central axis
  2. A tall mansard roof
  3. Paired columns
  4. The arched entrance

04. Architects and builders

  • Charles Garnier
  • Charles Girault
  • Richard Morris Hunt
  • McKim
  • Mead & White
  • Carrère and Hastings
  • Daniel Burnham

05. Where to see it

  • Palais Garnier, ParisCharles Garnier, 1860–1875
  • Grand Palais, Paris1897–1900
  • Petit Palais, ParisCharles Girault, for the 1900 World's Fair
  • New York Public LibraryCarrère and Hastings, 1911
  • Grand Central Terminal, New York1913

06. Often confused with

Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance. The same sources, but Beaux-Arts is the school's style: more strictly planned around axes and symmetry, and conceived at the scale of the city.

Sources

  • Wikipedia (en): "Beaux-Arts architecture" (bygger bl.a. på Robin Middleton (red.): The Beaux-Arts and Nineteenth-Century French Architecture, 1982)

Text: Pontus Bovin · Last updated 9 November 2026

Beaux-Arts around the corner

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