Nice - The Palladium

• department: Alpes-Maritimes
• municipality: Nice
• naming: The Palladium
• address : 2 Bd Tsarévitch, 75 and 77bis Bd Gambetta
• cadastral references: 0MH 287
• author: Paul Labbé (architect) and Gaston Nénot (architect)
• date: 1929
• protection: unprotected building
• label patrimoine XXe: Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites (CRPS) du 2 December 2015

The Palladium building takes its name from a statue of Pallas Athéna (attributed to César Chiavacci) installed in the heart garden of islet, side boulevard Tsarévitch.This apartment building, with shops on the ground flooris located near the Russian cathedral on one of the main North-South axes of the city center (Gambetta) and not far from the station of Nice, on the edge of the railway.

At the time of its construction, the neighborhood was in development but the proximity of the railway already reduced its charm. A major alteration in terms of scale and urban environment was, around 1975-80, the construction of the "expressway" on stilts, which passes in front of the high floors of facades whose effect was studied to reveal a grandiose character in silhouette on the sky, in a low angle view. The building is quite often published, but today suffers from its urban environment.

The construction is quite thin. Only the walls of facade and runners as well as the stairwells form structure. Everything else is made up of partitions. The floors are estimated at only 15 cm and the ceiling heights are 3.10 m, which is moderate for an elegant building of the late 1920s. On the private north rear alley, the successive withdrawals imposed by the template are treated in terraces. The plan of the apartments, with overhangs and cut sections, follows the 1920 standard.

Inside, the hall, the staircase, the elevator and the stained-glass windows, witness to the quality of this realization at the time, are kept in their original state.

This apartment building is remarkable for its modernity of construction and writing.

The architect Paul Labbé (1892-1943), was second Grand Prix de Rome in 1922 and joined forces with the Niçois architect Gaston Nénot at the end of his career. Together they produced several Art Deco-style works, mainly in Nice. After the war, following the death of Paul Labbé, Gaton Nénot continued his career alone, delivering several apartment buildings in a typical beach style of the 1950s on the French Riviera.

• Source: Michel Steve (City of Nice).