La Ruche (residence)

[1] Located in the Passage Dantzig, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, La Ruche is a three-storey circular structure that got its name because it looked more like a large beehive than a dwelling for humans.

Originally a temporary building designed by Gustave Eiffel for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition of 1900, the structure was dismantled and re-erected as low-cost studios for artists by Alfred Boucher (1850–1934), a sculptor, who wanted to help young artists by providing them with shared models and an exhibition space open to all residents.

At one time or another in those early years of the 20th century, Guillaume Apollinaire, Alexander Archipenko, Joseph Csaky, Gustave Miklos, Alexandre Altmann [fr], Ossip Zadkine, Moise Kisling, Marc Chagall, Max Pechstein, Nina Hamnett, Isaac Frenkel Frenel,[4] Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, Pinchus Kremegne, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Chaïm Soutine, Robert Delaunay, Amedeo Modigliani, Constantin Brâncuși, Micheal Farrell, Amshey Nurenberg, Diego Rivera, Marevna, Luigi Guardigli, Miklos Bokor, Michel Sima, Marek Szwarc, José Balmes, Gracia Barrios, Wacław Zawadowski, Kazimierz Brandel, and others, called the place home or frequented it.

[5] La Ruche went into decline during World War II; and by the time of the 1968 real estate boom, it was threatened with demolition by developers.

However, with the support of well known artists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Alexander Calder, Jean Renoir, and René Char, new management with a preservation mission took over in 1971, and turned it into a collection of working studios.