Waching daily Mar 1 2018

François Pinault is one of the world's great contemporary art collectors

creating the Pinault Collection

a project born to promote contemporary art

and make it accessible to a wide audience,

a personal vision to which he has involved several members of his family

including his son, François-Henri Pinault

In 2016, he was granted the lease of the Bourse de Commerce for fifty years

and charged with converting the building into a museum of contemporary art

The Bourse de Commerce is a remarkable sixteenth-century edifice

a unique piece of architecture located at the very center of Paris

The structure required a complete renovation

and a significant transformation

in order to accommodate its new role as a contemporary art museum

This mission was entrusted to Japanese architect Tadao Ando

who was previously responsible for the conversion

of the Pinault Collection's museums in Venice

Palazzo Grassi completed in 2006

Punta della Dogana completed in 2009

and the Teatrino in 2011

As you know, a little over a year ago

I accepted Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo's offer

to take over this historic site

and convert it into a museum of contemporary art

that will naturally rely on the works in the collection

Tadao Ando will be in charge of the project

assisted by a talented team:

the young French architects Lucie Niney and Thibault Marca

of the firm NeM

Pierre-Antoine Gatier chief architect of historic monuments

and the engineering firm SETEC

The plans they collaborated on have the double advantage

of inscribing this remarkable edifice in the twenty-first century

while emphasizing its historic significance

Day-to-day operations on site are being overseen by Bouygues

whom I asked to be responsible for ensuring that construction

scrupulously respects exacting environmental standards

Ando's project creates a link between past, present and future

The Bourse de Commerce, long forgotten by Parisians

is an embodiment of the city's architectural history

In the late nineteenth century

It no longer made much sense

to store grains in the center of Paris

So around 1889 the city decided to convert the Halle aux Blé

into a Bourse de Commerce, or commodity exchange

Architect Henri Blondel was able to maintain

one of the two original double-helix staircases

The iron dome designed by Bélanger

was altered to become the support for a series of wall paintings

Ando carefully analyzed the features of this exceptional historic site

the sources of its grandeur, as well as the constraints it presents

and conceived a cylinder that would be inserted into

the central space beneath the cupola

This building has reinvented itself several times

at different periods, each time relying on cutting-edge techniques

we're now writing a new chapter in the building's history

and again using new architectural technologies to alter the building

by adding this central cylinder we will be creating a new exhibition space

enclosed to create a certain intimacy and inwardness

separate from the rest of this imposing historic monument

While creating a space for exhibitions of contemporary art

the cylinder will also organize people's movements through the building

from the auditorium located underground to the second floor

and visitors will be able to stroll along a platform wrapped around the cylinder

which will provide access to the exhibition spaces

while also allowing visitors to discover the mural paintings lining the cupola and the glass dome itself

from angles and heights never previously accessible to the public

A spiral staircase

will connect the basement auditorium to the foyer

and to the black box theater

the reception areas

and exhibition rooms on the ground floor

as well as a small exhibition room on the first floor

and finally two landings facing one another on the second floor

In the words of Jean-Jacques Aillagon

former Minister of Culture and François Pinault's advisor

the Bourse de Commerce will be an unpredictable place

where the unimaginable becomes reality and the unexpected possible

It will reinforce Paris's unique position on the international art scene

Construction will be completed in early 2019 and the Museum will open in spring 2019