Charles Mewès
Charles-Frédéric Mewès (30 January 1858 - 9 August 1914) was a French architect and designer. Biography. Born in Alsace in 1858, Charles Frédéric Mewès grew up a Parisian after his family fled the Prussian invasion of 1870. "RIBA Journal" described him as "essentially a big man, both mentally and physically. He was a magnetic personality with a compelling influence tempered by a humorous and tolerant outlook on life". He trained under Jean-Louis Pascal at the École des Beaux-Arts and throughout his career, eschewed Art Nouveau and the Modern style for an elegant, meticulous recall of eighteenth -century France: the logical, spatial symmetry of Louis XVI recurs continuously. Mewès's hotels, steamer interiors, clubs, and private residences suited the Edwardians' opulent taste. He designed Ritz Hotels in Paris (1898), London (1905-1906), and Madrid (1908-1910); he was also the designer behind Maria Cristina hotel in San Sebastián (completed in 1912). The London Ritz was one of Britain's earliest steel-framed buildings. Subsequently, he undertook the design of Pall Mall's largest club, the Royal Automobile Club (1910) which featured a "Pompeiian" swimming bath adapted from the earlier l'Etablissement Hydrominéral (1899-1900) at Contréxeville. His first  maritime interior, the Hamburg America Line's SS "Amerika" was completed in 1905; the company so admired it that Mewès became their resident designer. On three German ships he incorporated a Pompeiian pool, although not on his last vessel, Cunard's "Aquitania" (1914). Although Mewès only spoke French, he opened firms in both London and Cologne, Germany, with Arthur Joseph Davis, who had been his classmate at the École des Beaux-Arts, and with the Swiss Alphonse Bischoff. A brilliant and cultured man, Charles Mewès owned an extensive library, especially in the design field. In October 1947 the journal of  the Royal Institute of British Architects described him as "The true type of the French intellectual of good stock". He designed many admired buildings, including the colossal Château Rochefort-en-Yvelines, the Jules Ferry residence and his own residence at 36 Boulevard des Invalides in Paris. He himself became a teacher and taught many students from all over the world. Charles Mewès bought the small castle of Scharrachbergheim in Alsace, where he spent much time with his three children after the death of his wife in 1896. He died in Paris in 1914.