Centre Georges Pompidou

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This is the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (prounounced /sɑ̃tʁ nasjõnal daʁ e də kyltyʁ ʒœʁʒ põpidu/), a museum of modern art and other things named after the late French President, Georges Pompidou /põpidu/. It is also still called by its original name of Centre Beaubourg, or just Beaubourg /bobuːʁ/, derived from the name of the street that runs along its east side (it was renamed at its inauguration, after the death of President Pompidou). Some irreverent Parisians call it la Raffinerie /la ʁafinʁi/ (“the Refinery”), because it looks like an oil refinery from the outside.

The building was designed by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini, and was constructed between 1972 and 1977. These architects had the bright idea of placing all the usual building infrastructure on the outside of the building, thereby leaving a vast open space of over 100,000 square metres available inside, spread over seven floors.

The only problems with this were that (1) a lot of people thought it looked ugly, especially compared to the very traditional architecture of the buildings around it; and (2) things left exposed on the outside suffer a lot from that exposure and start to rust and break, which is why the Center had to be closed for complete renovation in 1998 (it is now open again). Despite this, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris.

The stuff on the outside is color-coded: blue represents air-conditioning, green represents fluids such as water supply, yellow represents electrical equipment, and red indicates machinery.

I don’t care for modern art myself, and I find the inside of the museum even more boring than the outside. The best thing about the place is that the escalator (the snakelike structure on the side of the building seen here) gives you a nice view of central Paris, although you now must pay for admission to the museum in order to use the escalator.

I have pictures of the inside of the escalators, part of the inside viewing platform and part of the outside outside viewing platform, and a bit of the main lobby, if you are interested.

There are often many street performers on the plaza, in front of the Center, as well as a large number of drunks, bums, and low life (especially at night). The Center is located in the very lively neighborhood of the Forum des Halles, so there is a fair amount to see and do in the neighborhood.

Because the Center is large and hemmed in by other buildings around it, it’s hard to get a decent picture of the whole structure. This is the best I’ve been able to do thus far.

Photographed on May 26, 2001.