THE FOLLY THAT BECAME A TRIUMPH

摘要

In 1983, when I.M. Pei, FAIA, received one of the most illustrious commissions of his career-the modernization of the Louvre-he kept the project a secret from his firm. For four months, Pei did not tell his team in New York that François Mitterrand, the French president, had personally asked him to overhaul one of the world's most celebrated art museums. Pei wanted time to consider the project's scope before agreeing to take it on. The challenges of what Mitterrand called his Grand Louvre project were myriad. Here was one of the finest collections of art in the world, yet the historic buildings that housed it were in disrepair, the galleries were disjointed, and more than one visitor got lost down the labyrinthine corridors in search of one of only two public restrooms. Galleries accounted for the bulk of the interior, leaving curators no behind-the-scene space to manage, store, and care for the artworks. Never mind that the French Minister of Finance had claimed the Richelieu Wing for its offices, shuttering it from the public and refusing to leave even when the museum grew desperate for the space.