He was an architect in chief of many French civil buildings and national palaces, and a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.[1]
Biography
He entered the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1902 under the tutelage of Louis Henri Georges Scellier de Gisors in his studio, graduating with the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1911. He completed his architect's diploma in 1912. He founded his own firm in 1914 and took part in competitions in designing several war memorials after the war [which?]. As a young architect, he was commissioned to rebuild the town of Compiègne. He continued to take part in several exhibitions in the 1920s and 1930s.
He took on a considerable number of public commissions during his career. He was appointed architect for the Banque de France in 1940, and architect of civil buildings and national palaces for several monuments. He began teaching at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1925, becoming its director in 1942, as well as the director of École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. He was elected President of the Société Centrale des Architectes from 1945 to 1948.
In 1942, he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Gustave Umbdenstock's place.
He was interred and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. His archives and his daughter Marion's archives are kept at the Archives Nationales under the reference 377 AP3.
Giorgio Pigafetta et Antonella Mastrorilli, Paul Tournon architecte: Le moderniste sage, Sprimont, Mardaga, 2004, 197 p. ISBN 2-87009-842-1, lire en ligne [archive])
Gérard Monnier (dir), L'architecture moderne en France, t. 1 1889-1940, Picard, 1997, p. 192 et 255-256
Archives nationales, Le Don de l'architecture. Paul Tournon, Marion Tournon-Branly, Fontainebleau, 2013 (livret d'exposition)