Louvre Pyramid - the initial controversy and two decades later

Louvre Pyramid illuminated at night 
(Attribution: Creative Commons Attribution from Wikimedia Commons)

I first visited the Louvre several decades ago when I was still a postgraduate student in structural engineering. I revisited the place last month. In between, in the 1980's, a large glass and metal Pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, was constructed in the central courtyard (Cour Napoleon). At the time the design was unveiled, most critics perceived this as an unwelcome intrusion of modernism into  traditional architecture. The design attracted much adverse criticism and like every other person affiliated to the construction industry I too was aware of the raging controversy. However, I told myself then to withhold my opinion until I have seen it with my own eyes because still pictures often do not convey the truth.

Louvre Pyramid at daytime 
(Attribution: Creative Commons Attribution from Wikimedia Commons)

During the intervening years, in 2006, I also had the opportunity of watching the movie 'Da Vinci Code', which involved a murder inside the Louvre that led to several minutes of dramatic video shots of the Pyramid. Here I wish to stress that the controversy surrounding the movie is totally outside the ambit of the present post as it focuses solely on the Louvre original buildings and the Pyramid. The video shots of the Pyramid in the movie seen on a large movie screen further raised my curiosity and I felt an irrepressible urge to come and see this for myself. So I visited the museum last month, this time around with my wife Kalpana. 

I took my time to look around. I chose to look more around the building and less at the exhibits while Kalpana focused, as expected more on the exhibits. After looking long and hard, at the end of it, I returned with the happy feeling that the Pyramid was serving a very useful purpose, namely, that of providing essential facilities to the many thousands of visitors and it did so with the least bit of encroachment on the integrity of the original architecture.

A shot from Cafe Richelieu 

I took several shots with my camera. I took this shot from the vantage point of Cafe Richelieu, which is located on the first floor of the Richelieu wing. This shot, in my opinion, demonstrates, at least partially, though not wholly, that the Pyramid really does not overshadow the original building. In fact, I believe, in a subtle unexpected way it breaks the monotony of the original architecture, which is otherwise awe inspiring when you look at its total massing but perhaps somewhat monotonous in its repetition of the same architectural elements over long stretches.

The Pyramid created the enclosure necessary to handle thousands of visitors within a controlled environment

The Pyramid makes it possible to create the much needed weather controlled interior space that is required for providing the essential facilities to the visitors, such as information centers, learning centers, ticketing booths, audio guide  centers, cafes, public conveniences, sitting areas to rest the tired legs and above all guiding the visitors' movements between the three vast wings of the museum, namely, the Richelieu, the Sully, and the Denon. Guiding the cross movement of visitors between the three wings is exceedingly important as one must remember that the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world and it attracts a huge number of multilingual visitors from all across the globe; so guiding them with proper signage is of utmost importance to avoid confusion.  

Ieoh Ming Pei

I felt that given the many constraints the architect of the Pyramid I. M. Pei did a remarkable job. As design historian Mark Pimlott said, "I.M. Pei’s plan distributes people effectively from the central concourse to myriad destinations within its vast subterranean network... Several other museums have duplicated this concept, most notably the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago."  

On March 29, 1989, the day the Pyramid was opened by President Francois Mitterrand, architectural critic of the time Paul Goldberg had this to say in the New York Times: "more than five years after unveiling...the design provoked international controversy and accusations that an American architect was destroying the very heart of Paris...the news from Paris is that the Louvre is still there, although it is now a dramatically different museum. The pyramid does not so much alter the Louvre as hover gently beside it, coexisting as if it came from another dimension". I wholly agree with this. 

The Pyramid (seen in part at the rear) sits lightly on Cour Napoleon - Kalpana at the foreground

The pyramid is transparent. The colorless glass permits vision through and does not obstruct the vision across the pyramid. For this reason it floats lightly and sits there with its own distinct personality at the heart of the Louvre's original buildings without taking anything away from them but adding a focal point of interest. The vast underground space created by Pie below the pyramid under Cour Napoleon has released space from the Denon wing, which used to accommodate earlier, in a grossly inadequate and inefficient manner the ticketing booths and some of the other public utilities. The addition of the Pyramid and the space below it have transformed the Louvre from a confusing labyrinth of  exhibit galleries to one of the most modern museums in the world. And, the Pyramid is now accepted by the Parisians as an integral part of the heart of Paris.