Michel Roux-Spitz was the son of an architect from Lyon. In 1908 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, where he was taught by Tony Garnier; in 1912, he joined the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and received a classical training that led him to the Prix de Rome in 1920. He settled in Paris in 1924 and made some noteworthy contributions to the World’s Fair of 1925. He was commissioned to design a building on Rue Guynemer, the first in what he called his “white series” of Paris buildings, dating from between 1925 and 1931. In 1930, he created the Ford building on Boulevard des Italians and, from 1931 onward, received many important public commissions.