Pompidou Center
I will never forget the first time I saw the Pompidou center. I thought it was one of the most unusual buildings I had ever seen. However, like the Eiffel Tower, this trendy and hip building is very special-but odd.
In fact, I must say that I felt the building was fairly ugly, and shortly not what I was expecting. In fact, I agreed with what many critics have called the building.
Critics described the design of Pompidou museum as an “oil refinery in the center of the city”. The intention by the architects was to place service elements, such as water, electricity, outside of the building and consequently turn the building “inside out” with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems. Initially, all of the functional structural elements of the building were color-coded: green pipes were for plumbing, blue ducts for climate control, electrical wires are encased in yellow, and circulation elements and devices for safety are red. However, the color coding has been partially removed, and many of the elements are simply painted white now.
However, after I entered the center, I found that it was distinguished by a wonderful collection of modern art. Then and only then could I see why it is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions, displaying and promoting modern and contemporary art and featuring works by Picasso, Matisse, Miro and Pollock. I was also surprised to find that in the center. It also features a cinema, concerts and children's activities.
The museum has more than 50,000 works of art which include painting, sculptures, drawing and photography of which approximately 1,500-2,000 are on public displayed.
It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'ArtModerne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Center is known locally as Beaubourg.
It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by then-French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Center Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.
You either like The Pompidou Center or you don't, but you will not forget its glass facade, its external stairs and the red, blue and green pipes on the rear facade.
After a long stay inside the Center we departed to find, what I thought was the most interesting visit of the plaza. As we left the building, we observed jugglers, musicians, actors, and the Stravinski fountain that animated the plaza in front of Pompidou Center. They were great and capped our visit there.
I have only attended the Pompidou center once, even though I have been in Paris a number of times. However, I remember it quite well and would recommend anyone to visit it while in this beautiful city.
As you enter from the outside, you will find the entrance very unique, and you can choose the level you wish to depart.
“For they were in three stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the building was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground”. - Ezekiel 42:6
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