Centre Pompidou — A Place I Came to Love

I first visited the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1977, the year it opened. The building felt shocking in its modernity. I had never seen anything like it — exposed pipes and bold colors, right in the heart of Paris. How could this belong in the same city as the Louvre?The Centre Pompidou illuminated at night — a bold icon of modern Paris, 2022.The design came from two young architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, who turned the building inside out — pushing structure, escalators, and utilities to the exterior and leaving the interior wide open. President Georges Pompidou had wanted something open and democratic, a place where tradition and the avant-garde could meet. In 1977, it looked like nothing else in Paris.Over the years, as I returned, I grew to love it. The plaza in front always recharged me — young people sprawled on the ground, laughing, playing music, filling the courtyard with life.I remember riding the exterior escalator, climbing above the rooftops of Paris. From…