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Night view of the new Pompidou-Metz with its transluscent roof
Centre Pompidou-Metz: Art Center Extraordinaire
June 2, 2010
The new Pompidou Center-Metz, which opened on May 12 and was designed by architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, is a four-story steel-and-concrete hexagon with a 250-foot central spire. The spectacular undulating roof is a masterpiece of modern carpentry, a "hexagon of hexagons" using 650 tons of wood-mostly Austrian and Swiss spruce, with additional beech and larch-woven into double-level, six-beam frames, covered by translucent fiberglass-and-Teflon fabric "skin". The opening exhibit, Chefs-d'Oeuvre?, fills the center's entire 54,000 square feet of exhibit space with nearly 800 works of art.
One of the projecting window boxes.
The restaurant terrace under the overhanging roof
The top-floor gallery window with view of the Metz cathedral
All photos courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects Europe et Jean de Gastines Architects/Metz Métropole/Centre Pompidou Metz
Originally published in the May 2010 issue of France Today.
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