Guggenheim Bilbao
Phillip Johnson, the dean of American architects called Guggenheim Museum Bilbao "the greatest building of our century". Designed by Frank O. Gehry, this sprawling, organic plan resembles a living organism, like some gigantic metallic flower growing along the bank of a river. This unique Museum built on a 32,500 square meter site in the center of Bilbao represents an amazing construction feat. On one side it runs down to the waterside of the Nervion River, 16 meters below the level of the rest of the city of Bilbao. One end is pierced through by the huge Puente de La Salve, one of the main access routes into the city.It is a truly divine architectural achievement of the century. Concepts of architecture for art's sake, today's museum buildings are not only "storage" for art pieces, but the building itself is an element of art. The choice of Bilbao as the venue for one of the Guggenheim European centers is best understood in the context of the initiatives implemented by the Basque authorities as a contribution to the process of revitalizing the Basque Country's recession-plagued economic structure. These initiatives were also seen as a means of increasing the chances of the city's metrop
There is a harmonius tie between the architectural shapes and the contents of each gallery. In 1954, he received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Southern California and in the years immediately following, worked in a number of firms including Victor Gruen Associates and Pereira and Luckman Associates. Based in Los Angeles-where he relocated with his family in 1947-he has developed an unique expression that reflects both the urban vernacular and his long association with contemporary artists. The plan, involving a number of major projects conceived by some of the world's most prestigious architects, includes the work now in progress to increase operational capacity at the city's port, the restoring of the city's airport, a mission entrusted to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, a new Conference and Performing Arts Center, designed by Federico Soriano, the construction of a metropolitan railway - much of it underground - designed by Sir Norman Foster, and a new footbridge crossing the river at Uribitarte, also the work of Calatrava. Exhibition galleries are organized on three levels around the central atrium and are connected by a system of curving walkways suspended from the roof, glass elevators and stair turrets. Undoubtedly, this simplifies the tour inside the Museum while the atrium, in its very center, and the walkways that link one gallery with another - showing different perspectives of the exhibitional spaces - facilitate the location of galleries and services at any time. olitan area becoming the major reference point for European regions on the Atlantic seaboardThe Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is one of the most important ingredients in the plan to redevelop the city of Bilbao. Guggenheim Foundation presented its strategic management plan proposal for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for the four-year period from 1997 through to the year 2000. Formal AnalysisThe building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. From the Atrium, the visitor is given the opportunity to access a terrace covered by a canopy supported by a single stone pillar. As his practice expanded, the scope of his commissions grew to include exhibition design, furniture, libraries, office buildings, restaurants, schools, and visual and performing arts venues. Nine other, irregularly-shaped galleries present a remarkable contrast, and can be identified from outside by their unusual architecture and the covering of titanium. BiographyBorn February 28, 1929, in Toronto, Frank Owen Gehry is one of the most inventive and pioneering architects working today. Recognizable of Gehry's achievement besides Guggenheim Bilbao are Walt Disney Concert Hall - Los Angles, Guggenheim New York and Frederick R.
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