Comment 89441

By Mal (anonymous) | Posted June 10, 2013 at 11:32:16

Correlation/causation. Any economic benefits analysis needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Guggenheim's claims to economic stimulus, which would obviously be helpful in leveraging investments in franchises around the globe, is no different.

Yes, there's state-sponsored starchitecture, but it's not merely the Guggenheim Bilbao. The last 20 years of investment in Bilbao is part of a cultural shift intent on rescuing a city that was suffering socioeconomic collapse (its industrial base apparently caved in during the 1980s) and recharging the built heritage of a city founded some 500 years prior to Confederation.

Along with Gehry, two other Pritzker-winning architects are on deck in Bilbao: Foster & Partners designed the station entrances to the city's 44km LRT network, which launched in 1995, and Rafael Moneo designed the Library of the University of Deusto, opened in 2010.

Other high-profile names are also found in the city: Santiago Calatrava designed the airport's main terminal, opened in 2000, along with the Zubizuri Bridge (1997). Philippe Starck renovated the former Alhóndiga wine cellar to create the AlhóndigaBilbao cultural center, opened in 2010.

And on, and on...

Here in Hamilton we're giving design awards to power centres and still trying to formulate a new building that doesn't involve stucco.

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