Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
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Greeted with hostility and derided as a modernist affront when first proposed as the main entrance to Paris’ Musée du Louvre, the 71-foot-high glass and stainless steel Pyramide du Louvre designed by I.M. Pei, FAIA, now rivals the Tour Eiffel as one of France’s most recognizable architectural icons. As the 2017 recipient of the AIA Twenty-Five Year Award, it has once again been recognized as a legendary project that stands the test of time.
Born of President François Mitterrand’s early-’80s quest to modernize the Louvre—and memorialize his power by erecting monuments—Pei’s pyramid is the form that thrust the 800-year-old Palais complex into the modern era. As one Twenty-Five Year Award juror noted, it “established a benchmark for new, modern architecture that enriches an historic setting with integrity and respect for both history and progress.”
http://www.architectmagazine.com/aia-architect/aiafeature/the-ancien-regimes-fatal-blow_o
I have never been a fan of modernist architecture. I think I have more of a well-ok-you-exist attitude. I don't know if I would feel the same way if I was standing there. I have gone to see Pei's work in the US and I was not really as impressed as I suppose I should be.
