Pierre-Antoine GATIER

Chief architect of historical monuments – General inspector of historical monuments.

Born in 1959, Pierre-Antoine Gatier is an architect. He graduated in museology from the École du Louvre in 1983 and from the École de Chaillot in 1987. In 1990, he won the competition for the position of chief architect of historic monuments and created his own firm the following year. In 1991, he was awarded the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship (USA).

He began his career by restoring historical monuments in the Haute-Marne (Langres Cathedral, 12^th – 19^th centuries) and the Marne, (Reims City Hall), works of the first reconstruction after the First World War. He conceived an ethic of restoration of the Historic Monument which must be an approach of conservation integrating even the most recent periods. He produced a preliminary study on the Halles de Reims (1929), a vast reinforced cement structure that opened his interest in the conservation of 20^th century architecture and the most recent heritage. He continued this research in the department of Alpes-Maritimes in 1999 where he was in charge of the restoration of emblematic works of the holiday resort, the Villa Kerylos by Emmanuel Pontremoli (1908) in Beaulieu-sur-Mer and the Villa E-1027 by Eileen Grey and Jean Badovici (1929) in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. But also the great baroque architecture of the former Count of Nice (Cathedral Sainte-Réparate in Nice, 17^th – 19^th centuries).

In 2005, he was appointed chief architect of the Chantilly estate when an agreement was established between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Institut de France. The respect of the conditions of the legacy of the Duke of Aumale, the last owner of the Château, makes Chantilly a laboratory for the conservation of the 19^th century legacy (restoration of the large and small apartments, restoration of the large flowerbeds of the park).

In 2008, he was chosen by the Le Corbusier Foundation to restore the La Roche and Jeanneret houses (1926) in Paris, now listed as World Heritage. Since 2010, he is in charge of the Opera-Comique lyric theater, Salle Favart in Paris. In 2013, he was given responsibility for the French buildings in Rome, the Villa Medici and the five churches of the Pious Establishments. His agency is chosen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2018 to lead the restoration of the Farnese Palace (16th century), facades and roofs. In 2016 he participates in the renovation project of the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection with Tadao Ando and the agency NeM/Niney et Marca Architects (winning project of the Eiffel Trophy for the restoration of the dome with the engineering firm T/E/S/S, silver bracket award in the culture category). In 2017, he was appointed by the SETE to lead the 20^th repainting campaign of the Eiffel Tower.

Concerned to pass along his commitment to new heritage, he also speaks at universities and conferences in France and abroad. He has been a visiting professor in New York (NYIT), Venice (IUAV) and teaches at the École de Chaillot and the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville. In 2019, he will receive a PhD in architecture.

He conducts missions abroad such as in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and in Mexico after the 2017 earthquake for the Ministry of Culture and Communication. He conducts works abroad, such as the Basilica of St. Anne in Brazzaville by the architect Roger Erell (1947). He was President of Icomos France from 2006 to 2015.