Background
Constant Desire Despradelle was born in 1862 in France (in the former province of Burgundy).
Constant Desire Despradelle was born in 1862 in France (in the former province of Burgundy).
At the age of twenty he was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and after four years of study received his diploma in 1886, and in 1889 won the second Grand Prix de Rome.
He left France to pursue a professional career in America, and in Boston where he subsequently settled accepted in 1893 the position of Professor of Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over a period of nearly twenty years remained head of the School of Architecture.
He also participated, but briefly, in private practice in Boston. In partnership with Stephen Codman (Codman and Despradelle) he submitted the winning design in the competition for the new Peter Brent Brigham Hospital, his most important work.