 His purchase in 1713 of a Paris house in rue Saint-Dominique, faubourg Saint-Germain, the Hôtel Amelot de Gournay, which had been begun as a speculation the previous year by the architect Germain Boffrand and was in course of construction, revealed the daring of the architect and the courage of the patron.The hôtel had numerous features that set it apart from the conventional Parisian "hôtel particulier" of the epoch