of Robert de Cotte Chrétien-François thereafter commissioned prominent royal architect Robert de Cotte to rearrange it. In 1708, De Cotte and his agency carried out several repairs and planned a bold reconstruction, which included the displacement of the rue Pavée in front of the building to enlarge the courtyard, the construction of a new curved portal and a new wing in the centre of the courtyard to serve as a new main building with a monumental staircase and the modification of the garden facade. Two architectural drawings of the project have been retrieved from the papers of the agency and are still preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The project would have completely changed the orientation of the hôtel , from north/south to east/west. This was not followed by any further major modifications, probably due to the death of Chrétien-François de Lamoignon in 1709. The current building is still close to its 17th-century arrangement, the courtyard being largely untouched. However, possibly in preparation for the fulfilment of the project, the garden facade was modified, its pediment, the giant pilasters, and all its ornaments removed, the front steps moved (probably to fit the projected symmetry of the new building), and the south pavilion removed. This modification resulted in the austere, asymmetrical facade currently visible from the rue des Francs-Bourgeois and the public garden adjoined. Main portal In 1718, the widow of Chrétien-François, Marie-Jeanne de Lamoignon, had the current portal to the courtyard constructed. It features two carved putti, the one on the left holding a mirror symbolizing Truth, and the one on the right holding a snake symbolizing Prudence. First public municipal library of Paris In 1750, Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil left the hôtel for the Grand Chancery after being designated Chancellor of France. It was then rented by , prosecutor for the King and the city of Paris. Moriau, a bibliophile and scholar, used it to keep his large private library, which included a vast collection of preserved documents on the history of Paris. At his death in 1759, he bequeathed 14,000 volumes to the city, which, in 1763, opened the collection to the public. It is historically the first public municipal library of Paris. In 1774, the Lamoignon family sold the hôtel, which thereafter belonged to architect . Period of decline after the French Revolution After the French Revolution, like many of the Marais' hôtels particuliers, the