A competition held in 1852 was won by a plan by architect Jean-Marie-Victor Viel and engineer Desjardin, which combined the traditional use of masonry with that of cast iron.

However, these massive walls were barely able to support the weight of the projecting cornice, and had to be reinforced with cast iron columns and beams.

Although this made the building extremely hot during the day, it served as a hall for numerous exhibits and social events until its demolition in 1897.

Octave Mirbeau,[2] commenting on the Palais de l'Industrie as a focal point of the Champs Elysées, compared the building to "an ox trampling through a rose garden."

Although critics nearly universally condemned the Gothic "heaviness" of the building, the sheathing of an iron and glass structure with a stone casing was imitated in the London Exposition of 1862 and the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and even in the buildings that were to replace it: the Grand Palais and Petit Palais built for the 1900 World Fair.