Silver Palaces : Banking Architecture in France, 1850-1930

The documentary exhibition aimed at recalling the specific activity of banks during a rich period of the French economy. From 1865 onwards, financial institutions built large headquarters. They systematically employed trend-setting techniques (steel, glass, reinforced concrete), and combined significant elements devoted to public access, ceremonies, the keeping of goods and the work of a large number of ledger clerks. The architects and their commissioners endeavoured to establish an image particular to each bank, relying on the notions of power and integrity, trust and security.