Auguste Perret

Perret helped make reinforced concrete respectable as an architectural material, not just an engineering shortcut. His Paris apartment building at 25 bis Rue Franklin from the early 1900s is often cited as a landmark in exposed concrete construction.

Perret led the reconstruction of central Le Havre after the city was heavily bombed in 1944. The rebuilt center used a disciplined concrete grid, and UNESCO later recognized it as a World Heritage Site.

The Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris opened in 1913 and used reinforced concrete in a major cultural building. It is also famous for hosting the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring that same year.

Yes, Le Corbusier worked in Perret's office as a young man in Paris. Perret's structural rationalism and concrete work formed part of the background against which Le Corbusier developed his own modern architecture.