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Here's more from the charming "picture" book Paris Versus New York by cartoonist/designer Vahram Muratyan (I posted one of his juxtaposed images here). He is comparing the Centre Pompidou with the Guggenheim. I would beg to differ here again. The sprawling Centre Pompidou is an unattractive mesh of tubes. It sits in its own huge "place," separated it from the rest of the Parisian architecture, both in style and in its self-containment. The Guggenheim is nestled between New York City's buildings, not claiming some pompous space but fitting in (albeit in its own unique way) with the city's architecture.
This is what I meant by the decadent beauty of Paris (what a sacrilegious thing to say!). The city's beauty, rather than inspire more grand architecture, seems to have produced such monstrosities as the Centre Pompidou (named after one of France's president, no less).
The "experience" of walking in the Guggenheim is charming, spiraling up the "shell" to reach the various galleries. All one does as one maneuvers the various floors of the Centre Pompidou is stare out onto an ugly concrete "Place" with hippy "artists" using it as their playground. The beautiful Paris buildings are in the distant background.
