Louvre Opens Design Competition for $316 Million Expansion
129July 2, 2025
TheLouvreon June 27 officially launched a contest to design its planned $316 million expansion that will help it accommodate 12 million visitors annually. The project is aimed at helping the Paris institution, the world’s most visited museum, address overcrowding issues. Originally completed in 1793 and renovated in the 1980s to welcome 4 million visitors each year, the Louvre in 2024 hosted 8.7 million attendees.
The major elements of the expansion include a new entrance, which will lessen congestion at the museum’s main portal, the iconic glass-and-steel pyramid designed by I.M. Pei in the 1980s. According to a report by French dailyLe Monde, translated in theNew York Times, Louvre director Laurence des Cars has called for the new entrance to merge with the surrounding architecture, that being the seventeenth-century colonnade of the museum’s eastern façade, near the Seine River.
Another key facet of the expansion is a new underground viewing chamber devoted to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the museum’s most famous attraction. Situated beneath one of the Louvre’s courtyards, the Cour Carrée, the chamber is projected to encompass 33,000 square feet. The masterpiece currently draws huge crowds, with those wishing to view it often waiting hours to catch a brief glimpse of it from an unsatisfying distance, a glimpse that may include the sight of other visitors taking selfies in front of it. Visitors will need to purchase a separate, timed ticket to enter the new gallery, which Des Cars told Le Monde is expected to allow “genuine time for contemplation” of the work. Those entering the design competition must allow space for an explanation of the painting’s history.
A twenty-one-person international jury will shortlist five competitors in October. The winner will be announced early next year.