Bibliothèque Mitterrand

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This is the site Mitterrand of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the last of the late President François Mitterrand’s monumental projects, located in eastern Paris on the Left Bank, across the river from the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.

This complex was designed by architect Dominique Perrault to house a large chunk of the French national library’s twelve million volumes (some of which date back to days of Gutenberg). This library is the French equivalent of the Library of Congress in the United States, in that it receives a copy of every book published in France, and that now amounts to quite a collection.

This building was apparently selected from a competition without prior consultation with any of the actual librarians, because it is designed to house books in the four symmetrical glass towers that surround the central sunken garden (two of the towers are visible here, as well as part of the garden). Unfortunately, putting books in direct sunlight and exposing them to extremes of temperature is about the last thing you want to do to preserve them, so while the architecture of the complex is pleasing to the eye, it is hazardous to the health of books. In theory, many books, prints, photographs, and audiovisual materials were to be transferred to this location from the older location of the library (still in the rue Richelieu) some two years ago, but when I looked at the towers, they were mostly empty, except for some office space. Perhaps the librarians finally took control and moved the books into the large underground areas of the complex, or perhaps they haven’t been moved at all—I’m not sure.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the building is rather stark and predominantly gray, with lots of sweeping straight lines and perspectives. It is difficult to get a decent photograph of the entire complex overall. It has a pleasant, modern look to it, but it also seems quite deserted and liveless most of the time. There is a very nice garden sunken several floors beneath the center of the complex (partially visible here), but it is the only outdoor portion of the complex that is not open to the public!

As you can see here, the outdoor plaza or platform that forms a large part of the complex is entirely covered in wood planking. I'm not sure why so many trees were killed to provide the planking, since it looks just like gray concrete or steel, anyway.

The inside of the building (from what I’ve seen of it) is considerably warmer and more appealing than the exterior.

You are looking almost east in this photograph, which was taken late in the afternoon on a sunny summer‘s day.

Photographed on July 21, 2000.