Spanning from the West African coast to the Canadian prairies and south
to Louisiana, the Caribbean, and Guiana, France's Atlantic empire was
one of the largest political entities in the Western Hemisphere. Yet
despite France's status as a nation at the forefront of architecture and
the structures and designs from this period that still remain, its
colonial building program has never been considered on a hemispheric
scale. Drawing from hundreds of plans, drawings, photographic field
surveys, and extensive archival sources, Architecture and Urbanism in
the French Atlantic Empire focuses on the French state's and the
Catholic Church's ideals and motivations for their urban and
architectural projects in the Americas. In vibrant detail, Gauvin
Alexander Bailey recreates a world that has been largely destroyed by
wars, natural disasters, and fires - from Cap-François (now
Cap-Haïtien), which once boasted palaces in the styles of Louis XV and
formal gardens patterned after Versailles, to failed utopian cities like
Kourou in Guiana. Vividly illustrated with examples of grand buildings,
churches, and gardens, as well as simple houses and cottages, this
volume also brings to life the architects who built these structures,
not only French military engineers and white civilian builders, but also
the free people of colour and slaves who contributed so much to the
tropical colonies. Taking readers on a historical tour through the
striking landmarks of the French colonial landscape, Architecture and
Urbanism in the French Atlantic Empire presents a sweeping panorama of
an entire hemisphere of architecture and its legacy.
