The Louvre Pyramid was commissioned by the president François Mitterrand in 194, and its construction finished in 1989. The pyramid and the underground lobby underneath it were created because of a series of problems with the Louvre's original main entrance, which could no longer handle an enormous number of visitors on an everyday basis.
As for the Tour Eiffel one century before, the high contrast of the pyramid modernity with the baroque style of the surrounding spawned a lot of controversy and criticisms.
