The Gilded Age 101: What Is Beaux-Arts Architecture?

Vogue

21-06-2025

For those who fantasize about time traveling to witness the Gilded Age's most sumptuous spectacles, Beaux-Arts architecture offers a tangible glimpse. The style originated in 19th-century France and eventually rose to prominence in the United States in metropolitan areas such as New York City and San Francisco. It's a fantasia of classicism and grandeur, swirling together the symmetry and proportions from ancient Roman and Greek architecture with the elaborate ornamentation of French and Italian Renaissance and Baroque. Beaux-Arts became a particular favorite architectural style for government and civic buildings, such as museums and libraries, but also of private mansions for the elite few tycoons who could afford such an extravagance. Beaux-Arts eventually waned in popularity by the time the Great Depression struck, but its lasting impact can be felt in masterpieces like Opéra Garnier in Paris and Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal.
The New York Public Library in Manhattan.
With the Gilded Age season 3 premiere on June 22, take the opportunity to brush up on the architectural style that became synonymous with the epoch's unapologetic grandiosity.
What is Beaux-Arts Architecture?
Beaux-Arts architecture is a classical, opulent style that emerged in Paris during the 19th century and later spread to the United States and other parts of the world. Exacting in principles such as symmetry, and elaborate in areas of ornamentation, Beaux-Arts draws influences from ancient Greek and Roman structures as well as the grandeur of French and Italian Renaissance and Baroque.
History of Beaux-Arts
Beaux-Arts architecture takes its name from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, an academy where four ambitious students—Félix Duban, Joseph-Louis Duc, Henri Labrouste and Léon Vaudoyer—challenged the status quo of a centuries-old institution and paved the way for a new architectural style to rise in France by the mid-1800s. Weaving together elements of Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque, and occasionally Gothic architecture, Beaux-Arts was both adopted and praised, with important commissions coming from high-ranking members of society like King Louis Philippe.
Among the chief goals of this new style was to create a national character through architecture. But Beaux-Arts eventually made its way across the Atlantic, sweeping across the United States and embodying what is now known as the American Renaissance. The reason for this is largely the US students who attended École des Beaux-Arts, with Richard Morris Hunt as the first American admitted to the academy in 1846.