DESCRIPTION (2)

The facade on the boulevard Féart.

To bring down any monotony effect due to a lengthly façade, Marcel Oudin, designed three successive different vertical patterns, playing on the shape of windows : a pattern of "screens" topped by a loggia, a pattern of two balconies and a window, and then groups of twin windows. All of this gives the impression of three different buildings against one another and linked on the top by an awning.

This facade is probably one of Oudin’s most representative example of his style at the time.

It should be noted that Marcel Oudin just completed in 1925 the pavilion of “Les Magasins Réunis", a chain of department stores owned by the Corbin family, at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts. He also drew up in 1913 the plans for their main store in Paris on Avenue des Ternes. This building is today considered as a historical landmark.

On this façade of the Gallic Hotel, one can find all key architectural elements used on the pavilion of the exhibition :

Use of windows in shape of a screen that allows a larger view and much more light. This design which corresponds exactly to the needs of a seaside hotel, is significantly develop on this facade and it offers each room and suite a view over both sea and city.

Windows in shape of a screen
Boulevard Féart
(private collection)

Use of the awning on the top floor. And on other floors on this facades and on the sea front façade the use of planters above each window play the same role as an awing. Such planters are a constant element used by Oudin and it is particularly developed in all his works at this time such as the "Gallic Hotel", or the "Celtic Hotel" set on the Pen Guen beach at St. Cast (Britanny) or his unrealized project of a public pool in Dinard.

Use of curved colored glass included in an iron structure can be found both in the pavilion of the Exhibition of Decorative Arts and in the "Gallic Hotel" where they adorned the large canopy that covers the main entrance to the hotel.

Detail of curved colored glasses of the canopee

Finally, a visual effect of the pergola was the result of the polychromy of the loggia of the last floor. The upper part of the walls and the ceilings were painted in red color named « Estérel » while the supporting structure, such as the columns supporting the awning, were painted in yellow as the rest of the building.

Detail of the polychromy of the loggia

Main entrance and canopee boulevard Féart

(private collection)