Early life and education Born in
Lyon,
France, Cret was educated at that city's
École des Beaux-Arts, then in
Paris, where he studied at the
atelier of
Jean-Louis Pascal.
Career in
Austin, Texas, one of 20 campus buildings that Cret designed In 1903, Cret came to the
United States to teach at the
University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. After having settled in the U.S., Cret was visiting France when
World War I broke out. He enlisted and remained in the
French Army for the duration of the war, and was awarded the
Croix de Guerre and made an officer in the
Legion of Honor. Cret's practice in the U.S. began in 1907. His first major commission, designed with
Albert Kelsey, was the
Pan American Union Building, (the headquarters of what is now the
Organization of American States), in
Washington D.C., which was built between 1908 and 1910, a breakthrough that led to many war memorials, civic buildings, court houses, and other solid, official structures. His work through the 1920s was firmly in the
Beaux-Arts tradition, but with the radically
simplified classical form of the
Folger Shakespeare Library, built between 1929 and 1932, he flexibly adopted and applied monumental classical traditions to
modernist innovations. Some of Cret's work is remarkably streamlined and forward thinking, and includes collaborations with sculptors such as
Alfred Bottiau and
Leon Hermant. In the late 1920s, he was brought in as design consultant on Fellheimer and Wagner's, which is the present-day
Cincinnati Union Terminal, built between 1929 and 1933 during
Art Deco's peak of popularity in architectural style in the U.S. In 1927, Cret became a U.S. citizen. Cret was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 1928. In 1931, the regents of the
University of Texas at Austin commissioned Cret to design a master plan for the campus, and build the
Beaux-Art Main Building, which was constructed between 1934 and 1937 and is the university's signature building structure. Cret went on to collaborate on about 20 additional buildings on the University of Texas at Austin campus. In 1935, he was elected into the
National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full academician in 1938. Cret's contributions to the
railroad industry included designing the side fluting on
Burlington's
Pioneer Zephyr, which debuted in 1934, and the
Santa Fe's
Super Chief passenger cars, which were completed in 1936. He was a contributor to
Architectural Record,
American Architect, and
The Craftsman. He wrote the article "Animals in Christian Art" for the
Catholic Encyclopedia. Cret won the
Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1938. Ill health forced his resignation from teaching in 1937. He served on the
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1940 to 1945. Cret's work was displayed in the exhibit,
From the Bastille to Broad Street: The Influence of France on Philadelphia Architecture, at the
Athenaeum of Philadelphia in 2011. An exhibit of his train designs, ''All Aboard! Paul P. Cret's Train Designs'', was displayed at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia from July 5, 2012 to August 24, 2012. With a collection of 17,000 drawings and more than 3,000 photographs, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia has the largest archive of Cret's work.
Death After years of limited activity, Cret died in
Philadelphia of heart disease on September 8, 1945. He was interred at
The Woodlands in Philadelphia. ==Legacy==