A glass corridor leads to a new museum space, which houses about 900 artifacts in the library's collection, per the New York Times.
These items include sculptures, photographs, and even manuscripts from famous French writers like Victor Hugo and Marcel Proust.Marchand Meffre/Atelier Bruno Gaudin Architectes "The glass gallery offers a view to the roof, and the sky, with a surprising view of the domes of the Labrouste hall," according to Bruno Gaudin Architectes."The translucent glass floors allow light to penetrate downward, accentuating the beautiful verticality of the staircase's rotunda."Only a small part of the library is public space; the majority of the site is used for storage purposes and offices.
In all, the Richelieu site is home to 22 million objects and documents out of the library's 40 million items, per the Times. "After 15 years of work, we have returned a building that has been profoundly transformed to meet the contemporary challenges of welcoming the public, opening it up to the city, and sharing and exchanging with the younger generations," Bruno Gaudin Architectes said in their statement