As it nears its 40th
birthday in 2017, the Centre Pompidou remains an enigma since its 1977 completion
in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue
Montorgueil and the Marais.
Panned early
on, the project (designed by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano), became
an acquired taste once critics realized the public loved the building. And, it proved once again that in the world
of high stakes architecture nothing succeeds like success. Now popular as an icon of post modern, high
tech constructivism architecture, the Centre Pompidou is no longer the world’s
most unusual looking structure. That
honor is shared by Daniel Libeskin’s Jewish Museum in Berlin and Frank Gehry’s
Guggenheim in Bilbao. Of course that is
open to debate.
Named after
Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned it,
the centre was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard
d'Estaing.
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| Renzo Piano, left and Richard Rogers taking the Centre Pompidou escalator to the top. |
In an interview
with the British press in 2002, (now) Lord Rogers explained design creativity
for the Pompidou was helped along with then young architects both having a
large dose of naiveté. Plus it helped to
have won French president Georges Pompidou’s competition.
Centre
Pompidou houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information (Public Information
Library), a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which is the
largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and
acoustic research.
As a layman,
I was curious if the different colors on the exterior had function rather than
form. They did. On opening day, electrical elements were
yellow and orange; large ventilation units were white while smaller vents were blue;
elevator and stairs grayish silver; plumbing green and moving parts elements
red. The red zig zag tube that climbs
the building is the escalator element. Take that to the top for amazing views
of Paris.
The building
has attracted more than 200 million visitors to date. And, somewhere near the
pearly gates Alfred Gilbert is smiling ear-to-ear. He invented the classic toy Erector set
(1913) and the Centre Pompidou would have brought him tears of joy.
For a
terrific web page go to https://www.centrepompidou.fr/
SPEAKING OF RENZO PIANO:
If you’re a
fan of the Pompidou in Paris then you’ll love Renzo Piano’s new building for
the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Albeit, the new Whit is not as grandiose in
scale as the Pomp, but if nothing else is said Mr. Piano knows how to work a
skyline. Please return to Pillar to Post tomorrow for our take on
Renzo along the (Hudson) river.
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