Centre Georges Pompidou Nestled in the historic center of Paris, the Pompidou Centre a few reactions provoked not by his daring and avant-garde design.

The National Museum of Modern Art Georges Pompidou Centre, also known as the Centre Beaubourg or more simply as the Pompidou Centre is located in the heart of Paris, between the neighborhoods of Les Halles and Le Marais, not far from City Hall (Hotel de Ville).

Saint-Martin Street, which passes in front of the museum’s main entrance, is one of the oldest in Paris, with more than 2000 years old. This area has attracted since the Middle Ages many bankers and traders who settled there forming the Beau Bourg, something like “nice neighborhood”, a select neighborhood merchants in full swing.

With the passage of time and in the nineteenth, the Beaubourg became a poor area where many people humble congested. By the early twentieth century and considered unhealthy, the neighborhood was razed. So, for 40 years before the construction work of the Pompidou Centre in a parking place.

President Georges Pompidou, a lover of the arts was in 1970 who promoted the idea of ​​creating a place where old Beaubourg which brings together contemporary art, and it opened an architectural competition, after a selection from among 681 projects from from 49 countries, said yes to the idea of ​​Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini (both Italy) and Richard Rogers (English).

The idea was for other avant-garde and daring, a thoroughly modern set with metal structures and colors that reveal everything you normally want to hide: pipes, ducts and heating service, stairs, etc..
The building is a huge rectangular prism 166 meters long by 60 wide and 42 deep, with walls of glass and metal structure which is fully visible. On the east side, back on the Rue du Renard, the pipes are painted blue, green, yellow or red, depending on air transport, water, electricity or serve as service elevators or stairs. The great white chimneys that appear on the plaza outside the museum are from underground vents, as well as those on the roof.

The west front, on the Rue Saint-Martin, is traversed diagonally by an escalator transparent access to different levels of the museum while providing a view of Paris as it rises. Behind the stairs are circular walkways that allow the facade as a balcony.

The result of this type of construction allowed free inside any structure that could disturb the organization of space in the museum and its possible subsequent reforms. This got 7 levels (including basement and terrace) of 7500 m2 square. During the renovation works were made between 1998 and 1999, the museum could be processed into the interior without touching any supporting structure.

The Pompidou Centre was built between 1972 and 1977, was inaugurated by President Giscard d’Estaing on 31 January 1977. There were great controversies about the aspect of the museum Parisians called it “the refinery in the city” to “Notre Dame de la Tuyauterie” (Our Lady of the Pipe). The truth is that the center, which was scheduled for 5000 received daily visits up to 5 times, and since its opening he spent 150 million visitors.
The Georges Pompidou Centre works Public Information Library (BPI), one of its main attractions, as well as several exhibition rooms modern and contemporary art, the Gallery of Children (a space for adults and children with speech and workshops samples of awareness creation), cinemas, debates and conferences, shows and concerts. There are bookstores, shops, a rooftop restaurant and post office.