Under the reign of Louis XVI, he served as second-in-command to the King's Architect, Louis-Denis Le Camus [fr]. Later, he was Inspector General of the King's Buildings, and an official architect for the City of Paris.
In 1801, he was elected a member of the Institut de France and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where he took Seat #4 for architecture, succeeding Jacques Denis Antoine (deceased). Three years later, he was appointed Commissaire Voyer [fr] (a superintendent of roads). He served two terms as President of the Institut in 1806. This was followed by appointments to the Council of Civil Buildings (1807), and as Inspector General of the Great Roads (1809).
Louis David de Pénanrun, François Roux and Edmond Augustin Delaire, Les architectes élèves de l'école des beaux-arts (1793-1907), Librairie de la construction moderne, 2nd ed., 1907, pg.293
Michel Gallet, Les architectes parisiens du XVIIIe siècle, Mengès, 1995 ISBN978-2-85620-370-5
Charles de Franqueville, Le premier siècle de l'Institut de France, Rothschild, 1895