In the 1980s, the French National Library, a stone's throw from the Palais Royal in Paris, was bursting at the seams with its wings that had been built together and interlocked over centuries.
Individual holdings had already been relocated to the neighbourhood, but new acquisitions soon filled vacant shelves again: with manuscripts, books and magazines, maps, plans and globes, prints, posters and photographs, but also coins and finally with audiovisual and electronic data carriers.
That is why President François Mitterrand announced a new building in 1988, which the institution, which now operates as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, moved into in 1998 in the new district of Tolbiac.
The pharaonic monumental complex around an atrium with fern and pine groves and a terrace in the middle and four towers on the flanks attracted everyone's attention.
The parent company fell into oblivion in the public eye, but - lack of space remained an issue - was not abandoned, but a construction site.
Work is now complete on the Quadrilatère Richelieu – named after the block the building complex occupies between Rue de Richelieu, Rue des Petits-Champs, Rue Vivienne and Rue Colbert.
Unofficially called the Old National Library, the ensemble will once again be freely accessible after almost twenty years of successive general renovations, which by no means only applied to the adventurous electrical cables.
This means that a good half of the inventory of forty million writings, documents and objects in the heart of the capital is now accessible again.
As in Tolbiac, a distinction is made between rooms reserved for science and research and, a first for this location, a public library for a large audience.
The history of the facility goes back to the years around 1370, when under Charles V the basis of a royal collection was inventoried.
She found a place in a tower room of the Louvre - at that time still a fortress.
It comprised a collection of manuscripts that was to be transmitted and increased from sovereign to sovereign.
However, wars, relocations and the self-service mentality of some rulers led to losses.
The eventful early history did not end until the eighteenth century, when the inventory, which had meanwhile been expanded and institutionalized primarily under the Sun King Louis XIV, was opened to the public and finally settled at the current location.
The nucleus was the palace of Minister Cardinal Mazarin on today's Rue des Petits-Champs,
Younger wings also need care
The oldest wings date from 1635 (City Palace Hôtel de Tubeuf) and 1645 (Gallery Mansart and Gallery Mazarin).
However, from the point of view of monument preservation, younger parts also had to be treated.
The impressive reading room Salle Labrouste (1861 to 1868) has been resplendent for a few years now.
Recently, the no less spectacular Salle ovale (1897 to 1932) was restored, designed by two of Henri Labrouste's successors, the architects Jean-Louis Pascal and Alfred Henri Recoura.
The expansion of the pompous staircase in front of the entrance area, which used to lead to the Cabinet des Médailles and is actually a listed building, was probably unavoidable.