John Tirsch, architectural historian specializing in historic houses, landscapes and urban design; instructor in design history, Rhode Island School of Design; visiting curator, Newport Historical Society

In the second lecture our speaker will illustrate how in the hands of Emperor Napoleon III’s Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann, Paris in the mid-19th century became the Paris we know today: a city of tree-lined boulevards lined with buildings of required uniform height to assure urban harmony. Amidst the rising splendor was also controversy as old Paris was demolished and/or redesigned to suit an emperor’s vision of beauty.

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