In 1812, Napoleon entrusted him with the project of building a palace of the Archives, the first stone of which was laid on August 15, Saint Napoleon's Day, the Emperor being in the middle of the Russian campaign in front of Smolensk. This palace of the Archives was to be located in the new administrative district designed by the Emperor and was to face the Palace of the King of Rome, at one of the four ends of the Champ de Mars, at the east and along the river Seine. Its realization was to be entrusted to Cellerier. The events of 1815 and the fall of the Empire, however, put an end to this project, which remained unfinished.