Word: wings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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About their own culture, all Frenchmen are hyperbolists. But in this case, Toubon might be right. For when Mitterrand opened the newly rebuilt Richelieu wing last week, he vastly expanded the world's most famous museum and, for the first time in the palace's 447-year history, allowed the Louvre to be dedicated entirely to its extraordinary art collections. With its 231,400 sq. ft. of floor space, the three-story Richelieu wing will double the Louvre's display areas, allowing its curators to pull more than 4,000 works out of the reserves and put a total...
...Richelieu wing is only part of the $1 billion Grand Louvre project, which is likely to last three more years. But last week's opening, which also - marked the museum's 200th anniversary, completed Pei's vision of a subterranean crossroads linking every wing to a central starting point. Before the renovation, the entrances were confusing, and the Richelieu wing, occupied by the Finance Ministry, had been subdivided into a warren of cluttered, low- ceilinged offices. Apart from the Napoleon III apartments, the entire structure had to be gutted and rebuilt by an international team of architects under...
...decision was to cover the wing's three interior courtyards with glass and use them as galleries for sculptures. Taking advantage of the immense space available -- the ceilings are 115 ft. high -- French architect Michel Macary turned two of the courtyards into limestone terraces that show off, among other things, the heroic statues of Pierre Puget and a pair of rearing horses carved in Carrara marble by Guillaume Coustou for Louis XIV. The third courtyard, designed by American architect Stephen Rustow, evokes the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II (8th century B.C.) at Khorsabad and features...
...wing also houses most of the 5,500-piece decorative-arts collection -- including jewel-encrusted gold crowns and carved ivory statuettes -- in handsome, well-lit glass display cases mounted on stone pedestals and trimmed in chrome. The cases, which are used in all the new areas, are one of the Richelieu wing's most effective unifying elements because they echo Pei's refined, understated decor...
...floor. Set in a vast hall of polished stone, it is the central nexus that links all the departments to one another. Thanks to the large windows on the landings, it offers dramatic perspectives of the grand outdoor Pyramid and the majestic facades of the other wings. Wherever possible, in fact, Pei has sought to provide windows that open the museum on to the city outside and permit visitors to orient themselves. Perhaps Pei's greatest concession to visitor comfort was to include five rest rooms in the new wing, compared with two in all of the old museum...