Who designed the Louvre Pyramid?

I. M. Pei designed the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. The glass-and-metal pyramid serves as the principal entrance and skylight for the Louvre Museum’s underground visitor hall.

The project formed part of the Grand Louvre renovation announced by French President François Mitterrand in 1981. Pei was selected as the architect in 1983, and the pyramid opened in 1989. Its modern geometry was deliberately placed in the historic Cour Napoléon, creating a strong visual contrast with the Louvre Palace.

The structure is about 21.6 meters high and has a square base measuring roughly 34 meters on each side. Its main pyramid uses 603 rhombus-shaped glass panes and 70 triangular panes. Visitors descend beneath it into a large lobby that distributes traffic toward the museum’s wings.

The design was highly controversial at first, with critics objecting to a modern pyramid beside a historic French monument. It is also often confused with the smaller inverted pyramid at the nearby Carrousel du Louvre. That separate skylight is related to the same complex, but the famous courtyard pyramid is Pei’s work.