Designer of the Month: I.M. Pei

Week 3: the Grand Louvre & Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

1989 was a remarkably busy year for I.M. Pei. As I discussed last week, this was the year that Pei designed the Bank of China Tower, but it was another building that would really end up capturing the world's attention: the expansion, modernization and reorganization of the Grand Louvre Museum in Paris. It began in 1983, when President François Mitterrand chose Pei to update the structure in order to better integrate it into the city, while still maintaining the integrity of the original historic building - a royal palace that was fundamentally ill-suited for use as a museum.[1] "It was the most important project of my life," recalled Pei, shortly after the building's opening, "It's unnerving if I look back on it."[2]

The Grand Louvre - Phase 1. Photograph by Benoit Perrin. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Almost all of the controversy surrounding Pei's work on the Louvre centered around the pyramid that was designed as the museum's entrance. Because the Louvre had once been a palace, and had subsequently - for almost 200 years - been used as a museum, it was a structure that had a lot of different histories, all of which were incredibly important to the French people.[3] Pei decided that, in order to preserve "l'esprit du Louvre" the museum was going to need some serious renovations.[4] As it was, the building was so unfit as a museum space that many visitors had trouble finding the entrance, there was little storage, and only a fraction of the Louvre's collections could ever be on display at once.[5] As Carter Wiseman explains of Pei's design decisions in his book I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture:

The building had undergone so many alterations and reincarnations over the centuries he felt another chapter in the saga was perfectly appropriate to sustain the monument's vitality. And as he had done increasingly in recent years - especially in the East Building [of the National Gallery of Art]...- he began to concentrate on how the Louvre was to be used, in this case, by even greater masses of people than it had accommodated before. 'Something had to be changed to involve the public,' he said.[6]

Pei's solution involved reorganizing the long, linear building into a compact U-shaped museum centered around a focal courtyard, the Cour Napoléon, and creating a centrally-located glass pyramid to serve as the Louvre's entrance, providing access to all three of museum's wings.[7]

The Grand Louvre - Phase 1. Photograph by Deide von Schawen. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Like with the National Gallery of Art's East Building, Pei designed a pyramid as a way to let a great deal of light into an underground space - so as not to make it feel claustrophobic - while creating a structure whose virtual transparency would allow it to only minimally intrude on the view of the existing architecture.[8] Of course, while Mitterrand liked the idea of the pyramid right away, many French people hated the thought of a modern glass structure in front of their historic museum.[9] Some of the comments published in French newspapers included France-Soir calling the pyramid "an atrocity," a warning that the design "goes against the nature of the Louvre," from Le Quotidien de Paris, and most virulent of all, a headline calling the structure "The House of the Dead" in Le Monde, comparing it to "an annex to Disneyland."[10] Ouch.

Interior of the Grand Louvre - Phase 1. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

It was the underground space, however, that the museum's officials were the most concerned about. The plan called for the excavation of approximately 600,000 square feet on two levels, a space where visitors would purchase tickets, find information about the museum and chose which of the three galleries they wanted to visit.[11] Additionally, the plan called for an auditorium, shops, restaurants, offices, conservation studios, and storage facilities, bringing the Louvre's total area to more than 2 million square feet - making it the world's largest museum.[12] I won't go into the many, many issues that Pei had to face in his re-design of the museum (or in his designs for Phase II, which was completed in 1993) but in the end, when he had actually pulled off his design, it was deemed successful for both its beauty and for the new visitors it attracted. According to Le Quotidien de Paris, "The much-feared pyramid has become adorable."[13]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Photograph by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Associates.

Oh Pei and his pyramids. I thought it was fitting that the other design of Pei's I would discuss today would be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, mainly for its geometric similarities. By 1990, at the age of 72, Pei had decided that he was ready to turn the daily management of his firm over to others while continuing to work on a few projects that interested him.[14] Somewhat improbably for the classically-oriented Pei, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which was completed in 1995, became one such project.[15]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Photograph by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

As Pei Cobb Freed & Partners explains about the design of the building:

This building was designed to express the dynamic music it celebrates, and emblematize the city that introduced the term "rock and roll" in the mid-1950s. Simple geometric forms are juxtaposed to combine diverse functions within a unified whole. A theater cantilevered over Lake Erie on one side balances a circular performance drum on the other while a 165-foot-high orthogonal tower rises from the water to engage a tetrahedral glass tent. Like an explosive musical chord, the sculptural components reverberate out from center.[16]

By designing a very modern building on the shoreline of Lake Erie, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum created a significant landmark as an anchor point for Cleveland's developing waterfront.[17]

Interior of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Photograph by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

When first asked to design the building, Pei confessed that he knew nothing about rock and roll, but with the help of his children and visits to such musically-important locations as Graceland, Memphis, New Orleans, and New York, Pei came around to the idea.[18] "We heard a lot of music, and I finally got it: rock and roll is about energy," said Pei.[19]

[1] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Projects: Grand Louvre - Phase 1," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/8315/s.html, (accessed August 19, 2010).

[2] Carter Wiseman, "Le Grand Louvre (1983-1989): The Battle of the Pyramid," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 230.

[3] Mary Engler, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2007), 47.

[4] Carter Wiseman, "Le Grand Louvre (1983-1989): The Battle of the Pyramid," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 235.

[5] Mary Engler, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2007), 47.

[6] Carter Wiseman, "Le Grand Louvre (1983-1989): The Battle of the Pyramid," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 235.

[7] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Projects: Grand Louvre - Phase 1," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/8315/s.html, (accessed August 19, 2010).

[8] Carter Wiseman, "Le Grand Louvre (1983-1989): The Battle of the Pyramid," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 236.

[9] Mary Engler, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2007), 48.

[10] Carter Wiseman, "Le Grand Louvre (1983-1989): The Battle of the Pyramid," I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 249.

[11] Ibid., 239.

[12] Ibid., 240.

[13] Ibid., 259.

[14] Mary Engler, I.M. Pei (Chicago, IL: Raintree, 2007), 55.

[15] Carter Wiseman, "1989: 'The Year of Pei'" I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 294.

[16] Pei Cobb Freed & Partners online, "Projects: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum," http://www.pcf-p.com/a/p/8704/s.html, (accessed August 19, 2010).

[17] Ibid.

[18] Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum online, "History and Overview," http://rockhall.com/visit-the-museum/learn/history-and-overview/, (accessed August 19, 2010.

[19] Ibid.