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Essay The Louvre Palace, Pei's Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong

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One of his buildings that really captured my attention is the aforementioned Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. The structural expressionism adopted in the design of this building is supposed to resemble growing bamboo shoots, symbolising livelihood and prosperity. The whole structure is supported by the five steel columns at the corners of the building, with the triangular frameworks transferring the weight of the building onto these five columns. It is covered with glass curtain walls, and it’s unique appearance means that it remains one of Hong Kong’s most distinguishable buildings. However, like the Louvre it has caused quite a large amount of controversy, as it is the only major building in Hong Kong that bypassed the …show more content…

Although changes had been made it still kept to Paris’ traditional appearance and was installed within the former Orsay railway station. Between 1900 through to 1939 it was known as the Gare d’Orsay and was seen as the head of the southwestern French railroad network. However, after 1939, the station was to serve only the suburbs, as its platforms had become too short for the modern, longer trains that appeared with the progressive modernisation of the railroads.
In 1975, the Direction des Musées de France had considered installing a new museum within the train station, in which all of the arts from the second half of the 19th century would be displayed. The station at this time was threatened with demolition and was to be replaced by a large scale hotel complex, however due to the revival of interest in nineteenth-century architecture it became listed on the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments on March 8, 1973. It wasn’t until October 1977 that the official decision to construct the Musée d'Orsay went ahead.
The building was then classified as a Historical Monument in 1978, and a civil commission was created to oversee the construction of the museum. The modification of the original rail station into a museum was accomplished by ACT architecture group, made up of M. Bardon, M. Colboc and M. Philippon. Their scheme was chosen in 1979 out of six proposals, and would respect Laloux's architecture while

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