Centre Pompidou

The building that wears its guts on the outside/Modern Buildings

The Centre Pompidou in Paris, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and opened in 1977, is one of the most provocatively designed buildings of the 20th century. Its defining feature is that all structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are exposed on the exterior, color-coded by function: blue for air, green for water, yellow for electricity, and red for movement (escalators and elevators). The building rises 42 meters across 7 floors and houses Europe's largest collection of modern art. Critics initially called it an oil refinery dropped into historic Paris. Nearly 50 years later, it draws over 3 million visitors annually, so the oil refinery won.