Contemporary architecture in the city centre

New architecture and art installation in the context of the old city.
From the Pyramid of the Louvre to the Centre Pompidou via Les Halles, this walk presents the contrast between old and new and the projects that provoke, enhance and push boundaries.

Political power, demolition, and construction have always been inseparable in Paris. Henri IV’s legacy still exists in the Pont Neuf and the Place des Vosges. Haussmann's transformation of Paris from a dense web of medieval streets to a system of wide boulevards was as much a political act as a social project. In the 1980s Francois Mitterrand used the idea of the Grand Projets to allow architecture once again to reclaim a position as a prime means of expressing political will.  The best-known - and most controversial - of which is the plan by I. M. Pei to redesign and expand the Louvre and add a new entrance within a glass pyramid.

The Poste centrale du Louvre, an masterpiece of industrial architecture of the end 19th C. by Julien Guadet is currently beeing transformed by Dominique Perrault.Tadao Ando is converting the Bourse du Commerce / Collection Pinault -the former Stock Exchange Building-in an art centre.

The redevelopment of Les Halles - the historic market center of Paris already transformed into a transit hub and shopping center through a redevelopment project in the 1970s - is the latest project facing the combined stresses of political power, preservation, and planning.