Le Style Métro: Guimard, Subways, and the Modern City

What makes subways so important to modern cities, what did they mean to the people that used them, and how did Hector Guimard’s famous entrances for the Paris Métro help create those meanings? In this illustrated lecture, scholar and author David Pike will take you on a virtual tour of subway culture, with Guimard as our guide. We’ll explore what Parisians thought about his édicules and how they pictured them on postcards, on film, and in magazines. We’ll investigate their influence on social movements and working-class identity. We’ll trace how they ended up in cities from Lisbon to Chicago. And, we’ll survey their influence on subway design and city culture around the world.