The Pyramid-of-the-Louvre is a pyramid made of glass and metal, located in the middle of the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is the main entrance to the museum. It was inaugurated by the President of the Republic François Mitterrand on March 4, 1988 (2 months before the presidential elections of 1988!) and a second time on March 29, 1989 by the same President Mitterrand. But the works were finished only 4 years later in 1993. Who knows why to make 2 inaugurations "in advance"?
The battle of the Pyramid-of-the-Louvre
There were many conflicting elements in this period of political decisions and confrontations.
- The idea of using the former residence of the kings entirely as a museum.
This meant removing the Ministry of Finance, which had occupied the Richelieu wing since 1871. This led to the resistance of many finance officials who had worked at the Louvre since the beginning of their careers. To be noted that this desire to give the Louvre its full cultural vocation stemmed from the 19th century and, above all, from an idea put forward in 1927 by the then director of the museum.
- The decision to entrust the construction of the Pyramid-of-the-Louvre to the American architect of Chinese origin, Ieoh Ming Pei.
François Mitterrand appreciated the work that the latter had done at the National Gallery in Washington a few years earlier. The French president expressed his admiration during an interview organized by Jack Lang, Minister of Culture, in late 1981. Without acknowledging it, François Mitterrand had already chosen Pei from the beginning to design the Grand Louvre. A year later (1982), Emile Biasini, Director of Theater, Music, and Cultural Action at the Ministry of Culture, was appointed to head a proposal and coordination mission for the museum. He quickly met with the American architect of Chinese origin, Ieoh Ming Pei.
- The decision to appoint the Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei without a call for competition.
The big works (or even those on a modest scale) are normally done in France via "calls for competition". However, the architect will be appointed without competition, a fait du prince made possible by a legal artifice assimilating the construction site to a renovation... in simple terms, it was a trick. Pei will officially be a simple "consultant" to the architect in charge of the national palace, while he is preparing to launch gigantic works, mainly underground, which will double the surface of the museum... and build a pyramid in the heart of the Louvre.
- The discovery of the Pyramid-of-the-Louvre
Only in the fall of 1983, the idea for the pyramid was revealed to Emile Biasini, who had come to visit Pei in New York. The American architect then went to the Elysée Palace with Michel Macary, a Parisian colleague who was assisting him on this project. On the model they presented, this glass polyhedron took the place of the entrance to the Cour Napoléon. Jack Lang and several heritage officials are present. All of them go through a moment of amazement. It is to say that the French leaders of the time (or their representatives) were little concerned by such large-scale work, which normally requires precise monitoring by the project manager.
- Moreover, Pei was convinced that he would easily win over the general public.
He presented his Pyramid-of-the-Louvre project, on January 23, 1984, before the National Commission of Historic Monuments. This audience was very conservative. In the darkened room for the projection, the reproaches were flying, without it being possible to identify their authors. "This is not Dallas!". But thanks to a clever maneuver by the president of the session who proceeded to a "grouped" vote, only 13 of the 49 members of the commission pronounced themselves resolutely against his project. Jean-Pierre Weiss, director of heritage, had indeed combined in a single vote the reorganization of the Louvre - unanimously demanded - and the contested pyramid project.
- The controversy immediately flared up in the press.
An article by Aadémicien Jean Dutourd launched a "call for insurrection". In the newspaper "Le Monde", the columnist André Fermigier was indignant that "the courtyard of the Louvre was being treated as an annex of Disneyland". He was quickly muzzled and the recalcitrants were discreetly evicted. Jack Lang made sure that this rejection was not followed by Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris. He solicited Claude Pompidou, the widow of the former president, and the musician Pierre Boulez, two personalities with influence over him. Chirac received Pei and Macary at the Hôtel de Ville on February 9. Seduced by the model, he declared: "It is very interesting, but you are doing it very badly politically!
- François Mitterrand does not take into account the other controversies.
He gave his final approval in a press release of February 13, making fun of the controversy that persists. He now wanted to complete the construction of the Grand Louvre, which had been disrupted by the victory of the right in the 1986 legislative elections. The re-election of François Mitterrand in 1988 allowed the work to continue, to be completed in 1993, four years after the official inauguration and opening to the public of the pyramid and the Napoleon hall on March 29, 1989.
The Louvre Pyramid and technology
The metal structure of the Pyramid-of-the-Louvre that supports the glass cladding is made of steel and aluminum and weighs 200 tons. It consists of a steel structure weighing 95 tons and an aluminum frame weighing 105 tons.
The main Pyramid-of-the-Louvre rises to 21.64 meters on a square base of 35.42 meters on each side. Its surface area at the base is 1,254 m². It is covered with 603 rhombuses and 70 glass triangles. It is the first large construction to use laminated glass.
Not one but 5 pyramids in all - The Inverted Pyramid
The great Pyramid-of-the-Louvre is surrounded by three smaller replicas of 5 m in height, constituting skylights ... and a fifth pyramid This last one is seven meters high. It is inverted, i.e. the point turned downwards, built on the Carrousel du Louvre.
This inverted pyramid cannot be in direct contact with the outside world because water would accumulate on it, so it is covered by an additional glass surface of the same type. The latter is almost flat, hidden from the natural ground level by the hedges in the center of the Carrousel square.
Laminated glass: a challenge
The quality of the glass used was also a challenge. It was very difficult to meet the architect's requirements and to deliver the most colorless glass possible despite the 2.1 cm thickness of the plates. The French glass company that won the contract (Saint Gobain) opted to supply a type of glass that was not sensitive to this effect. They produced a laminated glass using the technique of an electric furnace, consisting of graphite electrodes, or molybdenum.
The ecological lighting of the Pyramid-of-the-Louvre
From 2011, the 4,500 lights that illuminate the pyramid and the facades of the palace, which were reaching the end of their life, were replaced by a new system of exterior lighting. According to Toshiba, the Louvre's sponsor, which is installing the new energy-efficient LED-based equipment, the lighting system reduces annual electricity consumption for exterior lighting by 73%.
"Pyramid" project to expand the Louvre's visitor capacity
When the Louvre was inaugurated in 1989, its reception areas were designed to accommodate between 3 and 5 million visitors. Twenty years later, the number of visitors to the museum has reached 9.5 million.
This undersizing has resulted in longer queues, difficulty in finding one's way around, and noise pollution. The Louvre's management launched the "Pyramid" project between 2014 and 2016, which consists of reorganizing the accesses and the Napoleon reception hall under the pyramid.
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