January 26, 2021  

The Pompidou Center and its famed external escalators. (Denys Nevozhai/Unsplash)
 

The Centre Pompidou in Paris, the city’s major multidisciplinary arts hub, will shutter for over three years starting in mid-2023 in order to complete critical renovations to its iconic modern building, reported Le Figaro yesterday, 25^th Jan. A reopening is slated for 2027. The news is not wholly unexpected, as government officials had said back in September that the iconic building, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and opened in 1977, was in severe need of restoration, which is currently projected to cost roughly $243 million.

The renovation of the center has been in the pipeline for several months. “There were two options on the table, one being to restore the Center while keeping it open, the other being full closure. I chose the second, because it should be shorter and a little bit less expensive.” she told the online edition of the newspaper.

“We don’t have a choice, the building is suffering,” lamented Serge Lasvignes, the museum’s president. Among the intended fixes are the removal of asbestos from its windows and façade, and the reworking of the iconic exposed water pipes, electrical and air-conditioning conduits, and elevators, all in bright primary colors, that grace the building’s exterior.

The museum is home to the Musée National d’Art Moderne and additionally houses an enormous public library and the IRCAM center for music research. However, the Pompidou was forced by the Covid-19 pandemic to close to the public in March. Reopening in June in limited capacity, it shut its doors again in October as the virus surged in the city, and has since remained dark. Now it must find temporary venues for its programming, as well as roughly 65,000 square feet of space in order to host the 1.4 million researchers and students who use its facilities annually. During its last full year of operation, in 2019, the Pompidou welcomed a total 3.2 million visitors.