Paris' Centre Pompidou turns 40

The 4th arrondissement is located at the heart of downtown Paris and has always been a hub. Starting in the 19th century, the old market halls delivered groceries to Parisians. In the 1960s, they were torn down, as were many homes in the Beaubourg district. The shopping mall "Les Halles" and the Centre Pompidou (in the background of the photo) were built in their place.

Just a few months after being elected as president of France, Georges Pompidou (pictured) decided that the cultural center would be built. It was meant to be one-of-a-kind in the world and unite all forms of art under one roof. Inside, visitors can explore literature as well as visual art and cinema.

For the first time in France, Pompidou held an international architecture contest with a prominent jury including Oscar Niemeyer; 681 entries were submitted. Brit Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano of Italy (above) caught the eye of the jury. Their Centre Pompidou was conceived not as a temple to high-brow culture, but as a building for everyone. This democratic principle inspired their entire design.

The Centre Pompidou was built from 1970 to 1977. The construction site took up 18,000 square meters (over 193,000 square feet) in the heart of Paris. The dilapidated district of Beaubourg had been torn down in the 1960s. The Centre Pompidou was erected on a former parking lot. The site is pictured here in 1975.

The functional aspects of the building were emphasized by painting the pipes with bright colors. The architecture was based on a simple idea: A metal frame that is visible from the inside and the outside holds the building together. The façade was strengthened with additional cross beams; the space between them was filled with glass walls.

Early on, the raw design revealing naked pipes and bars was met with criticism. Many thought the Centre Pompidou was ugly and called it the "Notre Dame of Pipes" or an "oil refinery." Each floor had a viewing platform and offered a marvelous panorama of the city. The thick, colorful pipes, which are more reminiscent of a power plant than a museum, are its trademark.

Riding on the escalator has never been so much fun. In the Centre Pompidou, they line the outer façade of the building and connect the six floors. The advantage is that no interior space goes to waste and the transparent case around the escalators allows for a magnificent view of the city. .

Architects Piano and Rogers considered the square around the museum just as important as the interior. They wanted to make it a place that was both urban and pedestrian-friendly - a spot for street artists and strollers. If the square were an exhibition, the people would be its exhibits. That was also part of the architects' democratic design: Here, everyone is invited to realize themselves.

Georges Pompidou wanted to compete with New York as an art hub, which is why he had a museum of modern art housed in the Centre Pompidou. It wasn't an easy task for art conservationists to present the works in rooms without walls and with a lot of daylight. That's why a museum with closed rooms had to be built within the center.

The idea was to make culture accessible to as many people as possible. A library is one large part of the center. It spans over 15,000 square meters and three floors and receives up to 4,000 visitors per day. All of the books are displayed; there is no archive. There is room for some 2,200 people to read, research or learn languages simultaneously in the library.

Some three million visitors come to the Centre Pompidou every year. It is one of the most-visited sites in Paris and was one of the first cultural centers in Europe to have stayed open until 10:00 pm for the past 40 years. On the underground floors, there are two cinemas and a photo gallery comprised of 100,000 prints.

In 2010, a second location of the Centre Pompidou opened in Metz. It was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and most of the artworks housed there come from the original center in Paris. Works by Picasso, Matisse and Miró can now be viewed in the small town of 120,000 residents. The aim is not only to democratize but also to decentralize culture.

Outside of France, there is also a Centre Pompidou in Málaga, Spain. French concept artist Daniel Buren decorated it with colorful glass cubes. The site used to be home to a shopping center that went bankrupt. The Centre Pompidou has committed to staying there until 2020, but the contract can be extended.