Building the modern city: planners and planning expertise at Léon Eyrolles' Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics, 1898-1939

By the beginning of the twentieth century French urban redevelopment employed a broad range of technicians. Many of these had studied in specialized schools set up for the purpose of creating skilled personnel for the development and management of the country's industry and infrastructure. One such private school was the Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics. On Léon Eyrolles' initiative, the school emerged within a few decades as a successful technological institute in civil engineering. This article focuses on Eyrolles' school in order to illustrate the development of town planning techniques and theories in France during this period, from the end of the nineteenth century through to the end of the First World War.