The new Salle Favart, built from 1893 to 1898, is typical of
Beaux-Arts architecture. The
neo-Baroque facade is an adaptation of Garnier's design for the
Opéra, and the elaborate exterior and interior decoration shows the influence of both Garnier and Daumet. The auditorium has a horseshoe shape with four galleries, a traditional design with roots reaching as far back as the 17th century. The structure has iron framework for reasons of fire resistance (the use of iron in theatre construction began in the 1780s), but unlike more forward-looking architects, Bernier concealed the frame with heavy stone. In keeping with the neo-Baroque design, nearly
photo-realistic allegorical paintings were commissioned to decorate the theatre's foyers, and in spite of budgetary constraints, the decorators "managed to produce an interior of overbearing opulence, especially in the lavishly histrionic, gilt-dripping stuccowork of the auditorium." The critical reception was quite varied, with the
rationalists attacking the "delirious frivolity" of the design, and the traditionalists defending it as appropriate for the
operettas to be performed inside. ==Photographs of the interior==