Noviciat des Dominicains, Former Dominican novitiate and artillery headquarters in the 7th arrondissement, Paris, France

The Noviciat des Dominicains occupies an L-shaped corner at 1 place Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, its cream facade pierced by a dark double door under an arched entry, a round traceried window above and a stone cross on the roofline. A cornerstone is inscribed "14". Along rue Saint-Dominique, a curved pale stone front with tall rectangular windows carries a dark slate mansard roof with white-framed dormer windows.

The Dominican convent of Saint-Thomas d'Aquin was founded in 1632 by Françoise de Saliné as a novitiate for up to 50 brothers, with a library of 14,000 volumes. The conventual buildings were erected from 1682 to 1740 on land of the royal abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and the chapel, now the church Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, was completed in 1770 to plans by Pierre Bullet. The French Revolution ended the religious use; the army installed the central artillery committee there from 1795, and the site later became the hôtel de l'Artillerie.

The name Jacobins, still used for the convent, comes from the rue Saint-Jacques, where the order's first Paris house stood. The library once held up to 14,000 volumes. Since 2019 the former cour Treuille de Beaulieu has been the jardin Rachel-Lambert-Mellon, named after the American horticulturist and philanthropist Rachel Lambert Mellon, whose foundation gave Sciences Po 4.6 million euros on that condition.

The complex occupies 14,000 m² between rue Gribeauval to the southwest and the church of Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin to the northwest, with three courtyards: the former cloister (cour Sébastopol), the cour Treuille de Beaulieu, renamed jardin Rachel-Lambert-Mellon in 2019, and the cour de Gribeauval to the east. The north wing staircase is classified as a monument historique; the south staircase is listed in the supplementary inventory. The site is now part of the Sciences Po campus, so access is not open to the public.

The north wing's staircase is a listed monument historique, while the south staircase is only inscribed in the supplementary inventory pending classification. The two are thus treated differently by heritage protection, not by renovation status.