modern architecture, his co-owners sought permission to name the street after him. In 1926, Mallet-Stevens described “his street”: “It is exclusively reserved for habitation, for repose; one should find there real calm, far from movement and noise…If the house plans are not alike, the requirements of each of the inhabitants are the same: air, light. Also, all the doorways, windows and other openings are vast, very vast…It is constructed of reinforced concrete, enabling great areas without intermediate supports, spaces free of columns. All the houses are covered with terraces…And all the terraces are at different levels, stepping down, over the entire street, achieving an ensemble of greenery that harmonizes with the calm lines of the architecture….” Finally, the architect paid homage to his enlightened clients, who trusted him completely. “Renouncing an individualism often detrimental to general harmony, my clients accepted that their respective dwellings, even while keeping their own characteristics, were part of an ensemble, that is to say, one indivisible body of architecture.”

The Villa Martel adjoins Mallet-Stevens’s own studio-residence, which articulates the corner of the rue du docteur Blanche. It is distinctive within the heart of this homogeneous grouping mainly because it is the only building that has been completely preserved. Unfortunately, with the addition of upper floors to most of the houses, radical exterior modifications to several of them, the destruction of the street furniture designed by Mallet-Stevens and the covering over of the original plaster and brightly colored accents, it is difficult today to conjure the harmony of the ensemble designed with so much care by the architect. In 1975, a request for landmark status was made to the French Monuments Historiques, but only the Villa Martel, whose interior layout had not been modified since 1927, finally obtained full protection from alteration or destruction in the late 1980s. Over the past decade, nevertheless, the tenacious efforts of several new owners Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132