Peace Palace: Encyclopedia II - Peace Palace - Conception

Peace Palace - Conception

The Palace was initially conceived by Andrew Carnegie in 1900, who sought to provide a home for the Permanent Court of Arbitration as well as to endow it with a library and centre of international law. The Court had been prohibited from aquiring the property itself as it did not meet the requirements for incorporation under Dutch Law, so Carnegie founded the Carnegie Foundation, giving it an initial grant of one and a half million dollars and chartering it with the construction, ownership, and maintanence of the Palace.

To find a suitable design, Carnegie called for an open international competition, with requirements that the building stand alone, preferably in a park. The winning design, set in the Neo-Renaissance style, was submitted by French architect Louis M. Cordonnier and amended by the Dutch architect Van der Steur.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Conception", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki