Cret, Paul Philippe (1876–1945)

French-born US architect and educator who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1903. Particularly prolific during the 1920s, he designed civic and memorial buildings in a modern classical style adapted to steel-frame construction.

He was born in Lyons, France, and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. His work includes the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, from 1928–32. Cret was professor of design at the University of Pennsylvania 1903–37. He received the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal in 1938.