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Revamping the Louvre to Lose That Lost Feeling

United Kingdom Architecture News - Dec 18, 2014 - 09:45   3182 views

Revamping the Louvre to Lose That Lost Feeling

image:williamhoart.com

The storybook rise of Jean-Luc Martinez begins where he grew up, in a Paris suburb dominated by blocky public housing. It ends deep within the opulent palace of the Louvre museum, where he is plotting what he calls a “petite révolution.”Mr. Martinez, 50, son of a postman and the Louvre’s president since April 2013, is moving quickly to make a democratic mark on the royal stronghold that has the most visitors of any museum in the world, 70 percent of them foreign tourists.

A two-year, 53.5 million euro makeover, or nearly $67 million, is underway in the vast reception area below I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid, where long lines of waiting visitors stream into a chaotic, open space that Mr. Martinez likens to a noisy airport and that leaves many people disoriented and lost......Continue Reading

> via New York Times