The complex includes the Hôtel de Lassay, on the west side of the Palais Bourbon; it is the official residence of the President of the National Assembly.

The original plan called for a country residence surrounded by gardens, modelled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the chief architect of Louis XIV.

[1] Both the Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel de Lassay were in the Italian style, with roofs hidden by balustrades and invisible from street level.

The two buildings had identical façades facing the Seine, and featured alternating columns and windows, and decoration on the themes of the seasons, the elements, and, fitting for the daughter of the Sun King, about Apollo.

For the Neoclassical palace of the Prince, the entrance on the Rue de l'Université was replaced by a larger and more impressive gate, framed by a gallery of columns.

The Chamber they designed was in the shape of a hemicycle, similar to a Roman theatre, and was covered with a cupola modelled after that of the amphitheatre of the Academy of Surgery, located not far away in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which had been built between 1769 and 1774.

In the center is a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, wearing a medallion of the Roman god Janus, whose two faces illustrate the motto that the experience of the past predicts the future.

On 8 November 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte organized a coup d'état and seized power from the Council of Five Hundred, then meeting at the château de Saint-Cloud.

Napoleon formed a new legislature, the Corps législatif, whose only duty was to listen to an annual speech by him, now First Consul, and to adopt the laws proposed by the Council of State, debated by another new body, the Tribunat.

[5] In 1810, statues of the goddess Themis, holding a scale in her left hand, and Athena, the symbol of wisdom, were placed in front of the façade on the Seine, along with statues of famous royal ministers, Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and Henri François d'Aguesseau, Poyet made two important modifications to the interior; he added two salons, the Salle des Gardes and the Salon de l'Empereur, which was intended for the use of Napoleon during his rare visits to the building.

Both these rooms retain much of their original decor, trompe-l'oeil paintings by Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard, the son of the famous court painter of Louis XIV.

Under the new plan, the main entrance was placed on the courtyard, where a delegation of deputies met the Louis Philippe, when he came to the building each year to open the session.

To give this entrance greater prominence, Joly constructed a Neoclassical portico with four Corinthian columns, modelled after the ancient Temple of Jupiter Stator.

The bas-relief on the fronton, which had originally depicted Napoleon bringing the flags of Austerlitz to the Assembly, was replaced by a new work by Corton entitled France supported by Force and Justice.

The style was highly classical, and resembled that of the ancient Roman baths; pillars supported five cupolas, over a gallery closed by two semi-circular bays.

Joly once again was the architect chosen to redo the building; his plan called adding another story and restoring, as much as possible, the original Italianate style, both inside and outside.

The Constituent Assembly met for the first time in the temporary Chamber which had been constructed in the garden of the Palais Bourbon, and then, on 4 May, the French Second Republic was proclaimed at the palace.

On 2 December 1851, when the Assembly refused to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term, Louis Napoléon organised a coup d'état, took power, and had himself proclaimed Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, ending the Second Republic.

After 1860, the regime was liberalised, giving the deputies greater influence; freedom of speech and press was reestablished, and debates resumed in the Palais Bourbon.

In 1898, during the Dreyfus affair, the socialist leader Jean Jaurès was struck by a monarchist deputy while giving a speech in the Chamber, and a bomb placed by an anarchist exploded in the gallery in 1890.

The Fourth Republic was founded by the adoption of a new constitution in 1946 and brought new technology to the Palais Bourbon, including the first microphones for speakers, but featured a large number of political parties and unstable coalitions which frequently collapsed.

The granite ball on a pedestal in the centre of the courtyard, called the Sphere of Human Rights, is by the American sculptor Walter De Maria.

The salons of the Palais Bourbon were created during the reign of Louis Philippe and were decorated by prominent artists, most notably Eugène Delacroix: The Library was built beginning in 1830 against the side of the original palace.

The design is from architect Jules de Joly, in the style of the ancient Roman baths, with pillars supporting five cupolas, which provide light.

The Salle des Conférences is a large room with tables and lamps on the east side of the hemicycle, where the deputies can read, talk, and check their messages.

The adjacent Hôtel de Lassay, connected by a gallery to the Palais Bourbon, serves as the official residence of the National Assembly's president.

One is a work of modern sculpture, a large granite sphere on a marble pedestal by the American sculptor Walter De Maria, which was installed in the Cour d'Honneur in 1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

A work by the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky was created in 1992 and occupies a small rotunda along the passageway between the Hôtel de Lassay and the Palais Bourbon.

It has displayed since 2015 a work by the American graffiti artist JonOne, called Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, based on Delacroix's famous Liberty Leading the People, it symbolises Youth, the Future, and Hope.

There are other notable contemporary works on display in the Palais Bourbon by Hervé Di Rosa, Djamel Tatah, Vincent Barré, and Fabienne Verdier.