Imrey Culbert and Sanaa Win Louvre Lens Competition

Imrey Culbert and Sanaa Win Louvre Lens Competition
New York-based Imrey Culbert in joint venture with Sanaa of Tokyo have been selected winners of the competition for a new 64 million euro satellite museum of the Louvre to be located on a 62 hectare former mining site in Lens, France.

Imrey Culbert and Sanaa were chosen from a group of three finalists that also included Zaha Hadid and Rudy Riciotti.

In April 2005, Imrey Culbert and Sanaa were chosen from over 120 qualifying international teams to participate in the competition.

The team's Associate Architects and Museum Design Specialists, Imrey Culbert established the global group consisting of: Sanaa (principal architects); Mosbach Paysagistes (landscape architects); Bureau Michel Forgue (economist), ARUP (lighting); Transplan, Hubert Penicaud, Betom, Avel Acoustique, Bollinger & Grohmann, Groupo Casso, and Sasaki (engineers).

The competition program is for a building that will "educate and allow the public to view the collection transversally," repealing the classic "departments" with which the art, in the Parisian palace, has been confined.

Over 20% of the total building budget will be dedicated to Museography, demonstrating an unusually high focus on "content" over "image," for a new museum.

The new museum will serve to host the diversity of the