For centuries the Louvre has served as the architectural representation of French authority in both the political and cultural realms, first as the royal residence and later as one of the world’s foremost museums. Thus the decision to undertake a major reconfiguration of the building signalled the importance of the grand projets. In 1981 President Mitterand awarded the commission for the remodelling of the Louvre to the American architect I. M. Pei, one of the leading modernists of his generation who had recently completed a major addition to the National Gallery in Washington DC. Plans called for the Ministry of Finance, which shared space in the Louvre with the museum, to be relocated to a new building and the museum’s facilities to be modernized and substantially enlarged. Historic parts of the structure were refurbished and new space created by excavating the Louvre’s enormous forecourt and inserting various public services including a new lobby below ground.

The signature piece of Pei’s design is a glass pyramid that rises out of the Cour Napoleon. Twenty-one meters high and thirty-three meters to a side at the base, the pyramid serves as the museum’s main entrance and allows natural light to reach the lower level of the public spaces. In a reversal of a tradition stretching back to ancient Egypt, the Louvre pyramid is a transparent volume instead of a massive solid. Surrounded by the ornate architecture of the Louvre, the pyramid is an ethereal presence in its historic setting; its design combines formal abstraction with technologically advanced construction. The Louvre pyramid affirmed the continued vitality of the formal language of modernism in an era of postmodern.