While the Center Pompidou is preparing to close on September 22, 2025 for five years of work, its president Laurent Le Bon announced in an interview with Figaro The future registration of the building inaugurated in 1977 as historic monuments.
This procedure constitutes an exception: in principle, registration or classification under Historic Monuments only concerns buildings of more than fifty years, time deemed necessary to assess their heritage and cultural scope. The Center Pompidou would thus join the limited list of exceptions to this rule, due to its status of an emblematic building of the Parisian landscape. This ranking would offer him certain advantages as part of his renovation.
Exceptions exist for contemporary buildings deemed major. For example, Villa Savoye de Le Corbusier (1931) was classified in 1965, 34 years after its completion. The Orly Sud terminal, built in 1961 was registered in 2013; The Tancarville bridge (1959), registered in 1994. The Maison de la Radio built in 1963 and which benefited from a long and costly restoration was registered in 2018, just over 50 years after its inauguration.
The Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers building already benefits from the label “Remarkable contemporary architecture”. This label, created by the LCAP law of July 7, 2016 replaces the “20th century heritage” label and applies to buildings, architectural sets, art structures and developments under 100 years of age, unprotected under historic monuments, the design of which has sufficient architectural or technical interest. The previously mentioned buildings have mostly obtained this label.
