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This is the second article about the construction of the Palais des Nations

n 1927, the League of Nations five different construction compa- the administrative aspects. In view
had decided to construct nies (three Swiss, one French and of this unanimity on the part of the
its new headquarters buil- one Italian), the League required architects, it is all the more remar-
I ding in Geneva and, for this them to form a consortium so that it kable that significant differences in
purpose, organized an international only had to deal with a single entity. levels can be observed between some
architectural competition. Out the The epoch of the 1930s was remark- parts of the building: for instance, the
hundreds of propositions that pour- able for social turmoil and trade slope in front of Door 21 as you walk
ed in, the design which came closest union activity, so the contract with away from the Door 6 lobby towards
to the ideal was considered to be EPN included a special clause stating the cafeteria.
that jointly submitted by the archi- that strikes would not be accepted as
tects Henri-Paul Nénot (France) a reason for delay. At different times, The first part of the structure to be
and Julien Flegenheimer (Switzer- between 300 and 500 workers would completed was called Building K (for
land). They were asked to produce a be employed on site. A few months Konstruktionsbüro), which is now
final version of their design together later, in January 1932, the League's known as Building Si, where SAFI
with Carlo Broggi (Italy), Camille budgetary Control Commission of is located. The ground floor became
Lefévre (France) and Joseph Vago five members observed that the buil- the offices for the architects' team of
(Hungary), whose propositions had ding was already going over budget some thirty-five full-time employees,
also been considered as prize-win- to the tune of 7 or 8 million Swiss two of whom would subsequently
ners. These five architects worked francs and suggested that parts of become staff members of the League
together and submitted a revised the project should be abandoned. in its building, parks and gardens de-
plan with financial estimates for Secretary-General Avenol noted that partment.
review by the Building Committee there was no clear majority in favour
at the end of June 1930. The plan of restricting the construction work, Despite the expressed intentions of
included a library block financed by so the edifice should continue to be the League of Nations that the buil-
the American philanthropist John D. built as planned. ding should be finished by 1934, it
Rockefeller Jr. A foundation stone was not until 6 November 1936 that
was laid at a ceremony that had The five architects worked together the main exterior construction work
already taken place on 7 September as a team and, after trying out a num- was declared to be complete. A month
1929. ber of different ways of working, later on his way from Geneva to Paris
decided to make all of their decisions by road, Paul Nénot was involved in
The Entreprise du Palais des Nations by majority vote in order to ensure a car accident and died in hospital
(EPN) was awarded the contract for the homogeneity of the building: on 13 December 1934 aged 81 - he
the main construction, with building Nénot was the chairman; Broggi never saw the interior of the comple-
work actually beginning in March was responsible for coordinating the ted building. His place as head of the
1931 and setting the rather ambitious construction work; Vago looked after team of architects was taken by Carlo
target of completion by the autumn the technical installations; and Fle- Broggi. Eventually, the Secretary-
of 1934. Although EPN consisted of genheimer and Lefèvre supervised General decided that it was necessary

32 Genève