The Guggenheim museum Bilboa Spain

“When it opened in 1997, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao—a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone—was hailed as the most important building of its time. Located on the Bay of Biscay, Bilbao is the fourth largest city in Spain, one of the country’s most important ports, and a center for manufacturing, shipping, and commerce. In the late 1980s the Basque authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program for the city. By 1991, with new designs for an airport, a subway system, and a footbridge, among other important projects by major international architects such as Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and Arata Isozaki, the city planned to build a first-class cultural facility. In April and May of 1991 at the invitation of the Basque Government and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, met repeatedly with officials, signing a preliminary agreement to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao. An architectural competition led to the selection of California-based architect Gehry, known for his use of unorthodox materials and inventive forms, and his sensitivity to the urban environment. Gehry’s proposal for the site on the Nervion River ultimately included features that embrace both the identity of the Guggenheim Museum and its new home in the Basque Country. The building’s glass atrium refers to the famous rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim, and its largest gallery is traversed by Bilbao’s Puente de La Salve, a vehicular bridge serving as one of the main gateways to the city. In 1992 Juan Ignacio Vidarte, now Director General of the Guggenheim Bilbao, was formally appointed to oversee the development of the project and to supervise the construction. Groundbreaking took place in 1993 and in 1997 a gala dinner and reception, attended by an international audience and Spain’s Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos I, celebrated the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.”

Courtesy guggenheim.org 01 guggenheim.org

The Museum at Night

Museum Centered Surrounded by A Tree in the Foreground, Office Buildings,  The Colorful Flowering Dog and The Green Hills

Vertical Sculpture of Steel Balls, a Palm Tree and the Hills as a Backdrop

Balls and Reflections

Perspective of a Vertical Vector

Indoor Stairway

Steel Ball Sculpture

The Rectangles

Rectangles of Titanium and Limestone

Rectangle of Light

Rectangles of Light

The Bathroom of the Guggenheim

The Sharp Angles

Sharp Angles of Mama and the Museum

“Mama’s” Legs

Triangles

Zig Zag of Limestone and Titanium

A Stairway, a Bridge, and a Wall making a Zig Zag Shape

Radiating Support Scaffolding

Radiating Supports of the Umbrella and the Support for the Building

Radiating Framework Supporting the Umbrellas

Radiating Legs of Giant Spider “Mama”

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Horizontal Vector and Rounding of the Walls

Horizontal Vector and Acute Angles

Stairway and Wall of Museum Reveal a Horizontal Vector with a Sharp Angle

Vertical Vectors and Horizontal Vectors

Umrella Like Structure with a Transverse Vector and a Vertical Vector

The giant spider ‘Mama’, by Louise Bourgeois

Portal to the Museum

Horizontal Path and Vertical Walls

Perspective with Vertical and Horizontal Vectors

Stairway

Shapes and Colors of the Urinal

Vertical Steel Balls with and Glass Skyscraper are in Contrast to the Horizontal Vector of the Office Buildings

Rectangular Titanium “Bricks” and Walls Forming an Acute Angle

Sharp Angles of the Umbrella and The Titanium Rectangles

Rectangles and Sharp Angles

Rectangles and Triangles

Seating in the Hallway

Rounded POrtal to the Museum with Rectangular Footpath and Titanium “Bricks”

Titanium Glass and Limestone Rectangles with Rounding of the Wall

Angles and Rounding on the Stairway

Balls and Rectangular Apartment Complex

“Mama” with Rounded Form Outlines the Rectangular Blocks of the Apartment Building

Glass Titanium and Limestone

Rectangles Sharp Angles and Rounding

Rectangles Sharp Angles and Rounding

Rounding of the Colored Tulips, Rectangles and Sharp Angles

Rectangles Sharp Angles and Rounding

Note a Little Nature

Sharp Angle of the Roof and Rounded Walls

Furnitue with Sharp Angles Combined with Roundness