La Maison | Champs Elysées | Maison Martin Margiela

Built in 1866, the house had three floors with sheds and stables at the rear. On the death of the duchess, it passed to her son Victor Masséna, Duke of Rivoli, then to her grandson André Prosper Victor Napoléon Masséna who sold it in 1913 to Her Serene Highness Louise de Croye, Princess of Croye Solre.

Her heirs sold it on 31 July 1919 to the Maison des Centraux, a limited company formed for the purpose with funds provided by the alumni of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures.
In 1989, the site of the Maison des Centraliens was extended to 7000m² by building a hotel complex in the garden. Management of the hotel was entrusted to the Accor hotel group.
But Accor’s installation of the Sofitel and Press Club brands at No. 8 Rue Jean Goujon tended to blur the identity of the place and its integral link with the ‘Centraliens’.

In 2009, after the departure of the Accor group, the Maison des Centraliens commissioned ODO to renovate the place, cleaning the façade, repairing the roof, bringing the building up to standard, renovating the 40 existing guestrooms, creating 17 new guestrooms and suites designed by Maison Martin Margiela, a smoking room, an 80-cover restaurant, and the bar, which opens onto a wooden terrace, seats 40 for meals in summer and gives onto the private garden.

Thus No. 8 rue Jean Goujon recovers its ‘Centralien’ identity and a prestigious place on the Paris scene.

Beyond renovation, architect Danièle Damon has really restructured the building. On the ground floor the restaurant is now vast and opens onto the terrace and garden, which lead to the Impasse d’Antin. The big new glass roof bathes it in peaceful light.

The kitchen has been reinstalled in the basement and refitted in line will all current standards. On the first, third and fourth floors, the former Centralien premises have been vacated to build the 17 Couture guestrooms and suites, their design entrusted to Maison Martin Margiela on the basis of a competitive tender. They will help to make the Maison a centre of attraction and give it a reputation for daring. The 5th and 6th floors have been fitted out to accommodate the Ecole Centrale alumni association.

The Maison des Centraliens and Maison Champs-Élysées project is the most ambitious ever entrusted to Maison Martin Margiela and is in a prestigious location that affords it a high profile.

This is a logical continuation of our interior design office’s work, following on from the Elle Décoration suite in the Palais de Chaillot in 2009. But it is also a challenge, as it means making different aspects cohabit – day and night, private and public – and expressing ourselves within the
tight limits set by the aesthetics of a 19th-century Haussmann townhouse and the safety restrictions of a place open to the public.