Second Empire Architecture

Second Empire architecture is a classically rooted revival style that reached its greatest popularity across Europe and North America in the second half of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth, taking its name from the Second French Empire of Napoleon III. Its central and defining feature is the mansard roof, a steep, four sided roof with a shallow or flat top, usually pierced by dormer windows and covered in shingles or slate, a roof form that originated in sixteenth century France and was fully developed in the following century by the architect Francois Mansart, from whom it takes its name. The style surged back into fashion during Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in the 1850s, and its practical appeal lay partly in the mansard roof itself, whose steep lower slope created genuinely usable attic story rooms rather than mere loft space. Second Empire buildings, with their heavy cornices and mansard silhouettes, became especially prominent as a style for grand public buildings, city halls and substantial private houses in the United States and Canada during the decades following the American Civil War.