Architecture terrible was a style of architecture advocated by French architect Jacques-François Blondel in his nine-volume treatise Cours d'architecture ou traité de la décoration, distribution et constructions des bâtiments contenant les leçons données en 1750, et les années suivantes (1771–1777).
He was well educated in languages as a youth, and participated for a time in the Thirty Years' War In 1640 the Cardinal de Richelieu entrusted him with diplomatic missions in Portugal, Spain and Italy, which gave him an opportunity to study at first hand the fortification systems of those nations.
François Mitterrand | François Truffaut | Claude François | François Villon | François Rabelais | François Hollande | Jean-François Lyotard | Jean-François Millet | François-René de Chateaubriand | François Boucher | François Fénelon | François Tombalbaye | François de La Rochefoucauld (writer) | Charles François Dumouriez | François Mauriac | Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse | Jean-François Champollion | François Viète | François Ozon | François Bozizé | Louis-François Richer Laflèche | Joseph François Dupleix | Jean-François Marmontel | François-René de La Tour du Pin, Chambly de La Charce | François Denhaut | François-André Danican Philidor | Michel François | Marie François Sadi Carnot | Louis-François Roubiliac | Hubert-François Gravelot |
Inspiration for the design of this Beaux Arts building came from the Place de la Concorde in Paris as well as the work of French architect and theorist Francois Blondel.