Exterior view
by CHERPITEL, Mathurin, Photo
In the 1770s Paris was being transformed at an extraordinary speed. Real-estate speculation was in full swing, driven by financiers, the nobility, and the clergy. Private residences were spinning up along the Champs-�lys�es, as well as in the entire faubourg Saint-Honor� area. Architects such as Charles de Wailly, Alexandre-Th�odore Brongniart, �tienne-Louis Boull�e, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Louis Letellier, and Mathurin Cherpitel were putting up mansions everywhere.
The new residences included Mathurin Cherpitel’s 1770 H�tel du Châtelet (at 127 rue de Grenelle, now the ministry of Labour), with an avant-corps of colossal Corinthian columns on the main fa�ade and a more graceful three-sided avant-corps on the garden fa�ade.
The photo shows the main fa�ade.