Centre Georges Pompidou (constructed 1971–1977 and known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles 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, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, who was President of France from 1969 to 1974, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by the then-French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.
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 Center, 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.”.
All of the functional structural elements of the building are 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.
The Centre was built by GTM and completed in 1977.
BUILDING SPECIFICATIONS Land area: 2 hectares (approx. 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 storeys Depth: 18 m, length: 180 m, width: 110 m.
Materials used: 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
The nearby Stravinsky Fountain (also called the Fontaine des automates), features works by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.
Video footage of the fountain appeared frequently throughout the French language telecourse, French in Action.
The building cost 993 million 1972 Francs. Renovation work conducted from October 1996 to January 2000 was completed on a budget of 576 million 1999 Francs.
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.