In the neighbourhoods around the railway station and going down towards the lake, there are numerous buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to be found with beautiful façades and interior stairways.

There were many architects and artists who, after finishing their studies at the Beaux-Arts school in Paris, came back to Lausanne with new ideas.

They felt free to choose their style, their technique, their references, leading to the "Eclectic" movement, which became to characterize the works of that period. The abundant use of décor, sculpture, wrought iron work, and stained glass was to become widespread.

All along the way one notices the flowering of bourgeois properties with strikingly different styles: walls in dressed stone, wrought iron railings, loggias, bow windows, porticos.

The roofs have skylights with pinnacles or pediments on top, the eye-catching ornamental paintings on the eaves.