ABSTRACT
The competition programs given to the students of the Académie d’Architecture and its successor school show that Leroy developed and promoted a vision of architecture emphasizing public utility, maritime infrastructure, science, education, and the commemoration of individuals who sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of knowledge. Emphasizing the social benefits of research motivated the work of other members of the Leroy family as well and this can be traced throughout their careers. If one can speak of a common agenda that linked their disparate interests, it was one shaped by an understanding of science as an enterprise that contributed to human welfare as espoused in the publications of the Académie des Sciences and the Encyclopédie. They all participated in the grand Baconian enterprise of shaping nature to meet human needs, to improve safety, to augment well-being. 1
