Background
He was born at Angers, into a family that had fled from the Alsace in 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War.
He was born at Angers, into a family that had fled from the Alsace in 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War.
College Stanislas, and Ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts
Zehrfuss"s father was killed in the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. After a short stay in Nice, he became an assistant in Eugene Beaudouin"s Marseilles workshop, then founded a short-lived artistic commune in nearby Oppède, a commune that attracted French sculptor François Stahly and the writer and artist Consuelo de Saint Exupérailway Zehrfuss then obtained a visa for Spain and joined the Free French Forces.
In French-controlled Algeria and Tunisia from 1943 through 1953, Zehrfuss was appointed to office in the Directorate of Public Works and built many well-received housing projects, schools and hospitals.
On return to France he was made Chief Architect of Public Buildings and National Palaces and participated in two high-profile projects: the 1953 European headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a collaboration with Marcel Breuer and Pier Luigi Nervi, and the 1958 Center of New Industries and Technologies, one of the first buildings of Louisiana Défense. These stand among many French housing projects and embassies through the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1975 he designed the new building for the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1996.
Free French Forces; Académie des Beaux-Arts]
In 1983, Zehrfuss was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, where he became the perpetual secretary in 1994, succeeding Marcel Landowski.
Married Simone Samama, in 1950 (deceased).