This is not the first time that French billionaire François Pinault has called on the services of Tadao Ando. Twenty years ago, when the luxury-goods mogul was initially seeking to display his fabled collection of contemporary art in Paris, he had the Pritzker Prize winner design him a brand new museum on Boulogne-Billancourt’s Île Seguin, erstwhile site of the original Renault car factory. But after that project foundered on the rocks of bureaucratic sluggishness, Pinault turned his attention to Venice, where he commissioned Ando to convert the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana into galleries. Now the tycoon has finally come home to roost with a new conversion project, bang in the French capital’s heart: the former Bourse de Commerce (commodities exchange), strategically located between the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou.
Pinault has a reputation for loyalty to trusted collaborators, and so it was that he commissioned Ando to design his new museum. But, since the Japanese architect is not qualified to practice in France, Pinault asked him to partner with young local firm NeM—Lucie Niney and Thibault Marca—who had previously worked for Pinault in Lens, France, where they realized a small artists-in-residence structure. Two more practices were hired for the job: the group setec bâtiment, a master in complex projects of this sort (its back catalogue includes the Fondation Louis Vuitton), who acted as team coordinator and architect of record, and heritage specialist Pierre-Antoine Gatier, since La Bourse is an important historic monument.
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