Building Paris provides an overview of the various architectural services that collectively gave shape to the French capital during a period of explosive growth, from 1830 to 1870. In his analysis of the transformation of Paris during this period, David Van Zanten demonstrates how a succession of royal and imperial monarchs used urban projects as representations of their authority.

This study also chronicles the dissolution of the traditional absolutist political structures before the emergence of national consciousness and amid the splintering of state authority into an array of distinct and competing architectural services. Building Paris demonstrates, moreover, how private architectural enterprise, which emerged in this period, was accommodated by government institutions, and how it achieved dominance in the building profession by the end of the century.