The Très Grande Bibliotheque Opens - Slowly

By Françoise Giovannangeli

Is this some new kind of giant power generator? Is it the east side's answer to the glassy skyscrapers of La Defense? The mysterious-looking edifice, it turns out, is the last and most ambitious of Francois Mitterand's "grand projets", the much talked-about Bibiotheque de France whose creation was officially launched on July 14, 1988.

Eight years and eight billion francs later France's new national library is set to open its doors -- at least part way. On 17 December, a section of it will open to the public with a limited collection of books. The ten million volumes currently housed at the Bibliotheque Nationale on rue de Richelieu, home of France's national library since 1720, will be transferred to Tolbiac over a period of 20 months. The Richelieu building will continue to house special collections, such as manuscripts, engravings, cartography, music, coins and medals.

Architect Dominique Perrault is the man responsible for the sprawling construction, which occupies a surface area the size of the Place de la Concorde and contains 400 kilometres of stacks, both above ground and below. The towers, apparently designed to ressemble open books standing on end, are used for storage.

At the heart of the structure, and at the centre of much debate, is a sort of in vitro forest transplanted from Normandy. Twenty mature silver pines weighing 12 tonnes each, were dug up from a wild forest and brought to Tolbiac where, along with more than one hundred cultured trees of different types, they form what Perrault has termed a "jardin sacre". The garden is actually sealed off in an aquarium-like pit and inacessible to the public, the idea being that it is "sacred", "symbolic" and as "fragile as a rare book".

Around the pit, reading rooms offering nearly 4,000 places -- four times as many as the Richelieu site -- are divided into upper and lower levels (haut-de-jardin and rez-de-jardin). The general public will have access to the upper level; researchers will work at "garden level".

The remainder of the library, whose operating costs will consume no less than nine per cent of the Culture Ministry's total funding, will remain closed until 1998, allowing the government to save from 100-150 million francs. A spiraling budget, unpaid bills and the architectural concept itself have generated considerable controversy thoroughout the project's unfolding. Planners have also been criticized for using rare tropical species of wood both inside and out.

Politicians and city officials are hoping the new facility will serve as a cornerstone for the development of the "Seine-Rive Gauche" area that will include nearly one million square metres of office space, as well as new housing developments. The Boulevard Massena station is undergoing a facelift in anticipation of the crowds of visitors expected to disembark there each day. But for now, the four towers stand alone; the garden's sunken tree tops reaching towards the sky are still the only sign of life in Paris's newest monumental landmark.

Francoise Giovannangeli is a Canadian freelance writer who lives in Paris. She can be contacted via this link.