Louvre Pyramid,
France
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller ones, in the courtyard of the Musée du Louvre Museum in
Paris, France. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the museum. Completed in 1989, it has become a landmark for the city of Paris.
The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments, reaches a height of 20.6 meters (about 70 feet); its square base has sides of 35 meters (115 feet). It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and meta
It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, "the number of the beast", often associated with Satan. Various conspiracy theorists have ascribed some deeper, sinister meaning to this supposed fact. For instance, Dominique Stezepfandt's book François Mitterrand, Grand Architecte de l'Univers declares that "the pyramid is dedicated to a power described as the Beast in the Book of Revelation (...) The entire structure is based on the number 6."
The story of the "666 panes" originated in the 1980s, when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number (even twice, though a few pages earlier the total number of panes was given as 672 instead). The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers. The Louvre museum however states that the finished pyramid contains 673 glass panes (603 rhombi and 70 triangles). A higher figure was obtained by David A. Shugarts, who reports that the pyramid contains 689 pieces of glass (Secrets of the Code, edited by Dan Burstein, p. 259). Various attempts to actually count the panes in the pyramid have produced slightly discrepant results, but there are definitely more than 666.
The myth resurfaced in 2003, when Dan Brown incorporated it in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. Here the protagonist reflects that "this pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of exactly 666 panes of glass - a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan" (p. 21). However, David A. Shugarts reports that according to a spokeswoman of the offices of I.M. Pei, the French President never specified the number of panes to be used in the pyramid. Noting how the 666 rumor circulated in some French newspapers in the mid-1980s, she commented: "If you only found those old articles and didn't do any deeper fact checking, and were extremely credulous, you might believe the 666 story" (Secrets of the Code, p. 259).
The pyramid and its surroundings are key locations in the novel/film The Da Vinci Code.
The Louvre and its pyramid also starred in another recent film, Team America: World Police, but only in model form. The model was destroyed very early on during the action scene involving it.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org
The project began as an invited design competition, during which many of the fundamental design tenets were established. These include an open and accessible main entrance, a sympathetic and inclusive attitude in the building's relationship to the Music Center's existing Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a pedestrian scale frontage along Grand Avenue, a generous and open backstage area, and a large garden.
