Though many marveled at Frank Gehry's curvaceous titanium-clad Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, many critics deemed its design to be functionally flawed:
"The museum can be seen as a Pop Art sculpture writ inordinately large. Unveiled in 1997, it turned remote Bilbao into a world capital of what planners call 'cultural tourism,' or what used to be known simply as culture.
"Even so, the Bilbao museum is famous for its inhospitability to art. The main gallery, at 430 feet long, swallows up the works displayed in it, draining them of presence and scale. How could Gehry justify this?
"'I designed that gallery with a system of walls,' he replied in a grieved tone. 'But Tom' -- naturally, he meant Krens [the museum's director] -- won't put them in. It's Tom who likes the big space. I am tired of taking the rap. Please tell Tom that for $1.98, I can put in three walls!'"
[Due to the excessive cost of titanium, Gehry originally planned to cover the Guggenheim with steel or aluminum. Shortly before the gallery's contruction, however, Russia flooded the market with titanium, delighting both Gehry and the gallery's many admirers.]
Sources
New York Times magazine, 2002/06/30; "Frontiers of Construction"
