Le Grand Louvre

Paris, France
I. M. Pei, architect

Location

History

I. M. Pei's Le Grand Louvre is an underground extension of gallery space serving France's most historical museum and one of the most culturally significant buildings in all of Europe. Completed in 1989 in central Paris, Le Grand Louvre followed the recla mation of the Louvre's northern wing to museum use and was apr of a reorganization project that would restore the aging complex to its prominence as a national treasure. The majority of the 669,490 square feet of the new space is below the central courty ard, Cour Napolean, and houses much needed gallery space as well as administration, storage, services, conservation and research facilities. The most important addition in Pei's project, however, was the designation of a central entrance within the Cour Napolean and the structure which was to house it.

Physical Description

In order to preserve the views of the historical facades and to harmonize with the classical geometry and symmetry, this entrance structure was chosen to be a centrally located glass pyramid. The steel frame of this entrance is 116 feet on each side and 71 feet tall, giving the shallow "Hall Napolean" entrance room below a strong presence above ground and serving as an immense skylight of well over 10,000 square feet in area. The spiderweb of steel members support 603 diamond shaped and 70 triangular pa nes of 21 millimeter thick glass, giving the structure a very elegant ad transparent apperance. It was Pei's intention to utilize a large number of small members rather than a few larger ones to allow a better transparency. The diagonal panes have digon als of 9.84 feet and 6.23 feet and the triangular panes are half of this size. The structure rests on four massive posts of reinforced concrete and steel which extend over two floors into the foundation below.

Building Process

Structural Descripton/Aspects

The two primary loads upon the glass pyramid are the wind loading and the weight of the structure itself. The frame and the glazing combined weigh an impressive 200 tons, and the wind blows against a surface area of 20,451 sqare feet. Other loads to be considered include thermal and, on occasion, snow loading.

Vertical Loading
The main vertical loading in Le Grand Louvre's glass gyramid is the glazing panels that cover it's surface and the steel structure that holds those panels. The total ensemble weighs approximately 200 tons. If a vertical load was applied to the upper por tion of the structure, it would travel through the steel far frame that is directly behind the aluminum mesh that holds the glazing frames to the structure. From there it would pass into one of the four massive concrete posts supporting the pyramid at ea ch of the four midsections. A detail of this connection between glass plane and column capital is shown below.