Museum projects to look at
February 17th, 2008Architectural Record’s website has a nice collection of museum projects that you can explore.
Here are some that stand out:
Kunsthaus Graz, $50M.
Literally popping out amid three- and four-story, 18th-century pastel-colored Baroque buildings straight from a Mozart opera, the new building is a whopper of a big, bright, blue bubble with a shiny, scaly, acrylic-glass skin that not only has a serious case of goose bumps but that flashes and glows in the dark.
You’ve just got to love it, nozzles and all. The people of Graz do. (Architectural Record)
Pasadena Museum of California Art, $3.2M.
Respectful of the traditions and character of the historic core of Pasadena, where the museum is located, and yet forward thinking in the exercise of formal and spatial innovation, the building is a clear evocation of the team’s belief in the role of architecture as both repository of the collective memory of city life and catalyst for change. (Architectural Record)
LVMH museum by Frank Gehry, $127M.
The building is scheduled to open in late 2009 or early 2010. Sixty-five thousand square feet of exhibition space will contain modern and contemporary art, as well as original commissions produced specifically for the space. (Architectural Record).
Can you imagine what a building like Gehry’s LVMH museum or the Kunsthaus Graz would do for Elgin’s image? If we had a landmark building, everything else would seem unimportant. It would change the way people think about Elgin.
I implore the council, do not build a $125M concert hall; build a museum. You get more bang for the buck.
i haven’t been paying attention; is there talk of building a concert hall for $125 million? where would it be located, and what sort of concerts? interesting since we have hemmens with the more expensive concerts pretty regularly…
Posted February 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pmWell I think there’s still some discussion about whether it would be a concert hall for classical music or a general purpose events venue. The Elgin Symphony Orchestra wants a pure concert hall for their exclusive use. That’s nice, but it’s expensive and hard to justify. Ed Schock, the mayor, wants a general replacement for the Hemmens, a venue that would host all sorts of events.
I’m skeptical generally speaking of the need for a Hemmens replacement. I don’t think it’s the role of the city to be doing bread and circus. And I really don’t think that Hemmens has or can have as much of an impact on downtown business as they are claiming. Neither do I think the building needs to be acoustically perfect for people to book it.
I think we should recognize that the Hemmens is sufficient for its purpose, to provide a venue for community groups to perform. That’s it. I don’t think Patty Hemmens ever thought that she wanted a place to host the Rolling Stones, or that the city should be booking such events.
With the opening of the Sears Centre Arena, large acts do have a place to perform, and residents can take advantage of that. Whether the arena will turn out to be a good bargain for Hoffman Estates remains to be seen, but it is a great bargain for us, because it’s just across the street and we didn’t pay anything to build it.
Posted February 17th, 2008 at 9:41 pm