Jean-Rodolphe Perronet

Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (8 October 1708 – 27 February 1794) was a French architect and structural engineer known for his many stone arch bridges. His best-known work is the Pont de la Concorde (1787).

Early life

Perronet was born in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris, on 8 October 1708.¹² He was the son of David Perronet, a Swiss Guardsman from Château-d'Œx, and Marie Travers.¹ His father later became a wine merchant and abjured Protestantism in 1709.¹ At age 17, Perronet entered the architectural practice of Jean-Baptiste-Augustin Beausire, an engineer and maître des bâtiments to the city of Paris, as an apprentice.² He was put in charge of the design and construction of Paris's grand sewer, embankment works, and the maintenance of the banlieue's roads. In 1735, he was named sous-ingénieur (under-engineer) to Alençon and in 1736 entered the Corps des ponts et chaussées.² In 1737, he became sous-ingénieur, then engineer to the généralité of Alençon.

Career

In 1747, Perronet was named director of the Bureau des dessinateurs du Roi (Royal Office of Designers), which had also just put Daniel-Charles Trudaine in charge of producing maps and plans for the kingdom. This first École des ponts et chaussées was based in the hôtel Libéral Bruant in Paris. Perronet was given the task of training bridge and road engineers and overseeing their work in the généralités in which they worked. The Bureau became the Bureau des élèves des ponts et chaussées, then in 1775 was renamed the . Perronet was to direct it for the rest of his life. As its organizer, inspiration, and teacher, Perronet was his students' spiritual father and used a new teaching method that seems very contemporary to modern eyes. During this time, he became friends with the Swiss bridge-builder .