Félix Duban, a former Prix de Rome winner, began transforming the former convent of the Petits Augustins in 1830. He designed the Palais des Études as the largest central building, with frescoes, stairwells showing different wall finishes and a semicircular award theater, the Hémicycle d'Honneur. Paul Delaroche's mural there is 89 feet (27 m) long and shows 75 artists.
Duban made the courtyard symmetrical by moving back the convent's cloister on the right, and glassed it over in 1863. He built in fragments from the Musée des Monuments français, which Alexandre Lenoir assembled from 1795 to 1816, such as the portal of the Château d'Anet.
The Bâtiment des Loges dates to 1820, and the Bâtiment des Expositions of 1862 extended the campus to the Quai Malaquais. The Hôtel de Chimay, built around 1750, was acquired in 1884. Auguste Perret built a concrete studio block around 1945. The site covers about 5 acres (2 hectares).
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