Editing Paul Philippe Cret (section)

== Teaching and Influence ==

Cret's influence extended through four decades of teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, where he trained architects who would practice Beaux-Arts principles across America. His students included Louis Kahn, whose later modernist work departed from Beaux-Arts aesthetics while maintaining its emphasis on spatial organization and material expression. The Penn program under Cret's leadership produced architects prepared for varied practice while grounded in design principles that transcended stylistic fashion.<ref name="tatum"/>

Cret's writing and professional activities spread his influence beyond direct students. He served as consulting architect for numerous institutions, providing design guidance that shaped buildings he did not directly design. His participation in competitions, professional organizations, and architectural discourse maintained his prominence until his death in 1945. The generation of architects he trained carried his principles into postwar practice, adapting Beaux-Arts methods to modern conditions even as architectural fashion turned toward other approaches.<ref name="grossman"/>