- Centre Georges Pompidou
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"Beaubourg" redirects here. For other uses, see Beaubourg (disambiguation).
Centre Georges Pompidou 
General information Type Culture and Leisure Architectural style Postmodern / High-Tech Location Paris, France Completed 1971 - 1977 Technical details Structural system Steel superstructure with reinforced concrete floors Design and construction Architect Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers Structural engineer Ove Arup & Partners Services engineer Ove Arup & Partners 
Part of the expositions in the Centre
Visual arts exhibition in Centre Georges-Pompidou
Pablo Picasso's works in the CentreCentre Georges Pompidou (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ ʒɔʁʒ pɔ̃pidu]; also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture.
It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, 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. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as the Beaubourg (IPA: [bobuʁ]). It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.[1]
Contents
Architecture
The Centre was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the British architect couple Richard Rogers and Su Rogers, Gianfranco Franchini, the British structural engineer Edmund Happold (who would later found Buro Happold), and Irish structural engineer Peter Rice. The project was awarded to this team in an architectural design competition, whose results were announced in 1971. Reporting on Rogers' winning the Pritzker Prize in 2007, 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 Centre, with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems. The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou "revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city."[2]
Initially, all of the functional structural elements of the building were color-coded: green pipes are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate control, electrical wires are encased in yellow, and circulation elements and devices for safety (e.g., fire extinguishers) are red.[1] However, recent visits suggests that this color coding has been partially removed, and many of the elements are simply painted white.[citation needed]
Construction
The Centre was built by GTM and completed in 1977.[3] The building cost 993 million 1972 French francs. Renovation work conducted from October 1996 to January 2000 was completed on a budget of 576 million 1999 francs.[1]
Building specifications[1] Land area 2 hectares (5 acres) Floor area 103,305 m2 Superstructure 7 levels Height 42 m (Rue Beaubourg side), 45.5 m (Piazza side) Length 166 m Width 60 m Infrastructure 3 levels Dimensions Depth: 18 m; Length: 180 m; Width: 110 m Materials used[1] Earthworks 300,000 m3 Reinforced concrete 50,000 m3 Metal framework 15,000 tonnes of steel Façades, glass surfaces 11,000 m2 Opaque surfaces 7,000 m2 Exhibitions
Several major exhibitions are organized each year on either the first or sixth floors. Among them, many monographs:[4]
Centre Georges Pompidou as seen from Rue BeaubourgStravinsky Fountain
The nearby Stravinsky Fountain (also called the Fontaine des automates), on Place Stravinsky, features sixteen whimsical moving and water-spraying sculptures by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, which represent themes and works by composer Igor Stravinsky. The black-painted mechanical sculptures are by Tinguely, the colored works by de Saint-Phalle. The fountain opened in 1983.[5]
Video footage of the fountain appeared frequently throughout the French language telecourse, French in Action.
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. In the spring, miniature carnivals are installed temporarily into the place in front with a wide variety of attractions: bands, caricature and sketch artists, tables set up for evening dining, and even skateboarding competitions.
Provincial branch
In 2010, the Centre Georges Pompidou opened a provincial branch, the Centre Pompidou-Metz, in Metz a city 170 miles east of Paris. The new museum is part of an effort to expand the display of contemporary arts beyond Paris’s large museums. The new museum’s building was designed by the architect Shigeru Ban with a curving and asymmetrical pagoda-like roof topped by a spire and punctured by upper galleries. The 77 meters central spire is a nod to the year the Centre Georges Pompidou of Paris was built – 1977. The Centre Pompidou-Metz displays unique, temporary exhibitions from the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which are not presented in Parisian mother house. The first exhibition, called Masterpieces?, attracted over 800,000 visitors during the year following its opening.
Use in film and television
A fifth floor room of the building featured as the office of Holly Goodhead (played by Lois Chiles) in the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker, which in the film was scripted as being part of the space station of the villainous Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale).[6]
Public transport
- Nearby Métro stations: Rambuteau, Les Halles
- RER: Châtelet – Les Halles
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e "Architecture of the Building". Practical Information. Centre Pompidou. http://www.centrepompidou.fr/pompidou/Communication.nsf/0/B90DF3E7C7F18CAEC1256D970053FA6D?OpenDocument&sessionM=3.1.12&L=2. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ Pogrebin, Robin (2007-03-28). "British Architect Wins 2007 Pritzker Prize". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/arts/design/28cnd-pritzker.html?hp. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
- ^ "Centre Georges Pompidou". Vinci. http://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/history-sites.htm?OpenAgent&georges_pompidou_centre_in_paris. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
- ^ "Centre Pompidou - Art culture musée expositions cinémas conférences débats spectacles concerts". Centre Pompidou. 2011. http://www.centrepompidou.fr. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
- ^ Hortense Lyon, La Fontaine Stravinsky, Collection Baccalaureat arts plastiques 2004, Centre national de documentation pedagogique
- ^ "Moonraker (1979)". The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079574/locations. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
Further reading
- Nancy Marmer, "Waiting for Gloire: Beaubourg Opens in Paris," Artforum, February 1977, pp. 52–59.
External links
- Official website
- Bibliothèque publique d'information website
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Pompidou Centre
- Paris Pages – Musée National d'Art Moderne
- - Le Centre Pompidou et son rayonnement
- Photographs
- Preview of Pompidou-Metz extension at Specifier Magazine
- Dossier: Richard Rogers + Architects, exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, 2007
- English-language site on Centre Pompidou
- Photosynth experience - Centre Georges Pompidou
Coordinates: 48°51′38″N 2°21′09″E / 48.860653°N 2.352411°E
Popular visitor attractions in Paris Arc de Triomphe • Sacré-Cœur • Cathedral of Notre Dame • Centre Georges Pompidou • Champs-Élysées • Conciergerie • Eiffel Tower • Grand Palais • Jardin du Luxembourg • Les Invalides • Louvre • Musée d'Orsay • Panthéon • Opéra Garnier • Père Lachaise Cemetery • Château de Vincennes • Sainte-Chapelle
Categories:- Visitor attractions in Paris
- Art museums and galleries in Paris
- Arts centres in France
- Modern art museums
- Contemporary art galleries
- National museums of France
- Busking venues
- 4th arrondissement of Paris
- Buildings and structures completed in 1977
- Renzo Piano buildings
- Richard Rogers buildings
- Ove Arup buildings and structures
- Brutalist architecture
- High-tech architecture
- Modernist architecture in France
- Event venues established in 1977
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