The Louvre chooses its entrance on the colonnade side

Despite the various controversies, the Louvre is not backing down on its project for a new room for the Mona Lisa and a new entrance via Perrault’s colonnade. Catherine Pgard, Minister of Culture, announced on May 18 that the international architectural competition for the “Grande Colonnade” component of the “Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance” plan had been won by the group formed by Studios Architecture Paris and Selldorf Architects.

Since the announcement of the project by Emmanuel Macron on January 28, 2025, the project has raised questions about its financing, its scale and the heritage constraints of an intervention in one of the most sensitive palaces in France. The spectacular theft committed in the Apollo gallery on October 19, 2025, then the departure of Laurence des Cars from the presidency of the museum also shifted the debate towards questions of hierarchy of work.

However, the program is not abandoned. It aims to create, to the east of the palace, a new complementary access to the Pyramid of Pei, saturated by attendance much higher than that for which it had been designed. The public would arrive from the belfry of the Saint-Germain-L’auxerrois church located opposite the Louvre, then cross a “reclassified” space to the Colonnade esplanade. The project provides for two underground entrances, on either side of the ditches, on the Seine side and rue de Rivoli, giving access to clear and functional reception areas.

The selected proposal organizes the descent towards these ditches via two symmetrical ramps with a gentle slope, partly sheltered in the thickness of the counterscarp wall. The moats must be vegetated and transformed into spaces for circulation and climatic breathing. Under these access points will be new services, restaurant and bookstore areas, a modular temporary exhibition space of high technical level and the future route dedicated to the Mona Lisa. The stated objective is twofold: to relieve congestion in the Denon wing and to offer Leonardo da Vinci’s painting an independent presentation system, less dependent on the general flow of visitors.

The jury, chaired by Marc Guillaume, prefect of the Île-de-France region, prefect of Paris, and of which Christophe Leribault, president and director of the Public Establishment of the Louvre Museum, was vice-president, selected the project for “the quality of its architectural proposal and its heritage, urban and landscape integration”as well as for the clarity of the paths, sobriety, greening and consideration of safety.

Studios Architecture Paris is the representative of the group. Chaired by James Cowey, this French agency belongs to an international collective founded in 1985, present in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Toronto. Its Paris office was opened in 1993. In France, the agency became known above all for complex transformation and architectural coordination operations, notably with Gehry Partners for the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the LUMA Foundation in Arles.

Selldorf Architects brings to the group another skill, very identified in the museum field. Founded in New York in 1988 by Annabelle Selldorf, the agency has gained an international reputation in cultural projects and renovations of heritage institutions. She notably worked on the Frick Collection in New York and the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, two interventions observed for their way of introducing new standards of reception into pre-existing buildings without seeking a spectacular gesture. For the Louvre, Selldorf Architects is also responsible for the scenography and museography, while Base Landscape Architecture is responsible for the landscape and town planning aspects.

The competition attracted more than a hundred applications, two thirds of which were submitted by international groups. Five teams were selected in October 2025. In addition to the winning group Studios Architecture-Selldorf Architects, Amanda Levete Architectes competed with NC Nathalie Crinière, Carole Benaiteau, VDLA and Atelier SOIL; Architecture Studio associated with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Atelier Brückner, LAMAYA and TER; Dubuisson Architecture associated with SANAA and Dan Pearson Studio; as well as Sou Fujimoto workshops Paris with Sou Fujimoto architects, Ducks Scéno and Vogt landscape.

All that remains is to find funding and generate consensus around the project. It’s not a win.