Centre Georges Pompidou
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| Centre Georges Pompidou | |
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| Building | |
|---|---|
| Type | Museum & Library |
| Architectural Style | Modern |
| Structural System | Concrete frame & precast concrete ribbed roof |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Construction | |
| Completed | 1977 |
| Design Team | |
| Architect | Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers |
| Structural engineer | Ove Arup & Partners |
| Services engineer | Ove Arup & Partners |
Centre Georges Pompidou (constructed 1971–1977 and known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the IVe arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles and the Marais. It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, and the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, who was president of France from 1969 to 1974, and was opened on January 31, 1977. The building was designed by architect Richard Rogers, whose design was not very popular at first. However, under the guidance of its first director, Pontus Hultén, it quickly became a noted attraction in Paris.
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[edit] Architecture
The Centre was designed by British architect Richard Rogers, (with Renzo Piano.) In 2007, Rogers won the Pritzker Prize, often called the profession’s highest honor. The New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down" and that "Mr. Rogers earned a reputation as a high-tech iconoclast with the completion of the 1977 Pompidou Center, with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems. The Pompidou 'revolutionized museums,' the Pritzker jury said, 'transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city.'"[1]
[edit] Musée National d'Art Moderne
The Musée National d'Art Moderne is the French national modern art museum located on the fourth and fifth floors of the Centre. Organisationally, it is associated with IRCAM, the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, which is located nearby.
The museum has a major international collection of modern art by artists such as Kandinsky, Matisse, Miró, Picasso, etc. Some of the art movements represented are Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. It has 50,000 works of art (including painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography), of which 1,500 to 2,000 are on public display.
Also located here is the Centre of Industrial Design. 20th century architecture and design are covered. The museum has a rolling program of important temporary exhibitions.
 Main hall of the Musée |
 Main hall of the Musée |
 Interior corridor of the Musée |
 "Manège" exhibition, by Claude Closky |
[edit] Bibliothèque publique d'information
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The first three floors of the Centre house a library and the Bibliothèque publique d'information.
[edit] Stravinsky Fountain
The nearby Stravinsky Fountain (also called the Fontaine des automates), features works by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.
Video footage of the fountain appeared frequently throughout the French language telecourse, French in Action.
[edit] Place Georges Pompidou
The Place Georges Pompidou in front of the museum is noted for the presence of street performers, such as mimes and jugglers.
 Street artist in front of the Centre |
 Place Georges Pompidou at dusk |
[edit] Public transport
- Nearby Métro stations: Rambuteau, Les Halles
- RER Châtelet - Les Halles
[edit] Miscellaneous
- The Beaubourg's brutalist architecture may have been an inspiration for the similarly-named Borg cube.
- In 1978, the Greek artist Vangelis created an album named Beaubourg (album), that is supposed to be a musical representation of the Centre Pompidou, and to reflect life in the Beaubourg area of Paris, where Vangelis lived in the early '70s.
- The exterior escalators at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, California, USA, bear a striking resemblance to the escalators at the Centre Pompidou.
- In 1987, the Musée de l'Art Moderne hosted an exhibition of the works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. One American visitor, having just bought a surprisingly costly museum catalogue, sat down in a comfortable chair to read it, not noticing that he had stepped over a rope and onto a platform to do so. He eventually realized that the chair was part of the exhibit: it was an original Barcelona Chair.
- The Centre Pompidou was equipped by its architect with many recent innovations, like faucets controlled by photocells that mix hot and cold water to a temperature determined by the position of the user's hands, much as a theremin regulates its pitch and volume. These faucets showed up in the U.S. years later, mostly in public buildings.
[edit] External links
- Centre Pompidou official website
- Bibliothèque publique d'information website
- Paris Pages — Musée National d'Art Moderne
- Photographs of the Pompidou Centre
- Photos of the Pompidou Centre, Paris
- Centre Pompidou Visiting Information
- Photographs of Beaubourg and its district
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- Satellite image from WikiMapia or Google Local
- Street map from Multimap or GlobalGuide
- Aerial image from TerraServer
| Popular visitor attractions in Paris |  |
|---|---|
| Arc de Triomphe • Cathedral of Notre Dame • Centre Georges Pompidou • Champs-Élysées • Conciergerie • Eiffel Tower • Grand Palais • Jardin du Luxembourg • Les Invalides • Louvre • Musée d'Orsay • Opéra Garnier • Père Lachaise Cemetery |
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