THE GALLERIES LAFAYETTE in paris,haussman street are so beautiful.do you know if it was the opera before?

Question

or was it constructed to be the way it now looksa all along?thanks

Answer 1

No it wasn't an opera. It was built from scratch in 1912 when the company moved from their original site in the rue Lafayette.

Answer 2

The store was started by two cousins, Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn in 1893 at the corner of Lafayette and Chausée d’Antin. The building was never the Opera.

In 1896, 1 rue Lafayette was purchased in its entirety and in 1905, 38, 40 and 42 Boulevard Haussmann were purchased as well as 15 rue Chaussée d’Antin.

In 1906, Théophile Bader commissioned the Roman award-winning architect Georges Chedanne and later his student Ferdinand Chanut to design the new layout of the Haussmann store.

Answer 3

No it seems that this big shop was at first a little shop which grew up....

It has had very beautiful stairs in the middle, but these stairs were vanished.

It is not far from the Opera Garnier, but there was no Opera just at the place of Galeries Lafayette.

http://www.parisbalades.com/Arrond/9/9e....

"Les Galeries Lafayette sont parties d'une petite boutique fondée à l'angle des rues La Fayette et de la Chaussée d'Antin. S'étendant aujourd'h*i sur 120 000 m2, le grand magasin accueille 80 000 visiteurs par jour… Construit en 1908 (Georges Chedanne) et agrandi en 1912 (Ferdinand Chanut), il a conservé sa jolie façade rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, sa magnifique coupole à vitraux reposant sur 10 piliers métalliques, ses balustrades arrondies. Hélas, le grand escalier a été démonté."