Constant-Désiré Despradelle

Constant-Désiré Despradelle (May 20, 1862 – February 8, 1912) was a French-born architect and professor of architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who, through his teaching, influenced a generation of Beaux-Arts style architects and helped to popularize this style throughout North America.

Born in Chaumont, France, Despradelle was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at age twenty, was educated in the atelier of Jean-Louis Pascal, and obtained his diploma in 1886. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1889.

In 1893, Despradelle went to Boston, accepting a position as Professor of Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he served until his death. He taught the Beaux-Arts style and thus influenced the style's continued use throughout North America and Europe until about 1920.

Among architects who studied under him were the Canadians George Allen Ross, William Sutherland Maxwell and Andrew R. Cobb. American architects who trained under him included Francis M. Miller, Ellis Lawrence,Marion Mahony, Ida Annah Ryan, Rose Standish Nichols and Raymond Hood.

A contemporary anecdote in the MIT student paper The Tech may give some indication of his manner and personality: "The Lounge [a column in the paper] secured the services of Mr. Derby as interpreter, and thus equipped sought an audience with Professor Despradelles. After an excited conversation of about fifteen minutes Mr. Derby reported in full to The Lounge as follows, 'Mr. Despradelles says that Sunday is a curious American custom'."

Despradelle was an architect of the early buildings and grounds of the University of California, and served on its advisory board. In Boston he maintained a practice called Codman and Despradelle with his business partner, Stephen Codman. Among their best-known projects is the Berkeley Building on Boylston Street, Boston, now a US national landmark.

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