About

About architect Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU

On June 26th 1881 Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU is born in Bucharest. His family lived at the corner of Strada Pictor Ștefan Luchian and Strada Mântuleasa. Educated in Bucharest, first at Școala Mântuleasa and then at Liceul Matei Basarab, Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU takes the admittance exam for Școala de Arhitectură (Architecture Higher Education) in September 1899 and he ranks first out of 13 candidates. After military school, the young student drops out of architecture school, and in May 1903 he is admitted into École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studies under Edmond Jean-Baptiste PAULIN (1848-1915). On November 22nd he graduates and becomes Diploma Architect of the French Government.

Returned to Bucharest, architect Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU works in the studio of architect Dumitru MAIMAROLU (1859-1926). In 1909 he is appointed Chief Architect for Ministerul Instrucției Publice și al Cultelor, and in 1912 Chief Architect for Ministerul de Interne. In 1920 he is appointed professor with the school of architecture, within the department for the History of Architecture and in 1927 he is transferred as a workshop coordinator. He is appointed dean of the same school of architecture between 1938 and 1940. Throughout these responsibilities he manages to keep a constant prolific design practice.

Going through classical, Neoromanian styles and towards the end reaching Art-Deco and Modernism, Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU proved a permanent esthetic search a preoccupation for architecture trends in Romania and abroad.

Architect Paul SMĂRĂNDESCU passed away too soon, in 1945, in full creative strength.