Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou

DSC_1115, originally uploaded by oyclubsnap.

"The structure forms a huge transparent box whose exposed frame of tubular steel columns carries trusses spanning the width of the building. External mechanical systems -- elevators painted red; escalators in clear plastic tunnels; and giant tubes for air (painted blue), water (green), and electricity (yellow) -- all are conspicuously placed outside the main columns.

Considerable controversy arose over the assertive industrial style of the Pompidou Center, whose bold "exo-skeletal" architecture contrasts violently with surrounding houses in the heart of an old section of Paris near the Hôtel de Ville"

its actually quite pretty. though we MISTOOK it for a construction site when we first saw it - and walked in the opposite direction.