The Guggenheim opened its museum in Bilbao 25 years ago, transforming a once industrial city into a vibrant tourism hub
Photography by Erika Ede, FMGB, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2017
Words by Joe Lloyd
One of the world’s most emblematic buildings has just celebrated its 25th birthday. The Guggenheim Bilbao has cast an enormous shadow in the worlds of art, architecture, regeneration and urban planning.
Designed by the American architect Frank Gehry, it is a gargantuan hulk of twisted, shining titanium, rising from the banks of the Nervión River like a spaghetti-fied cruise ship.
Positioned on the road into town from the airport, is the first thing many visitors see when they visit Spain’s 10th largest city. For many, it is the reason for visiting in the first place, though Bilbao and the surrounding Basque Country holds many other wonders.
Bilbao now feels like a prosperous place. But it was a very different city 25 years ago. An industrial port founded on shipbuilding and steel, deindustrialisation and globalisation saw it fall on some very hard times indeed. The post-industrial torpor was compounded by the threat of violence, with the armed separatist group ETA engaged in bombings, assassinations and kidnappings.
Photography by Erika Ede, FMGB, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2017
When originally proposed, the museum was controversial. It cost €84,000,000 to build and necessitated the purchase of €36,000,000 of contemporary artworks, many from public money. This did not go down well in a time of decline. Ahead of the museum’s opening in 1997, ETA members attempted to bomb the museum while posing as gardeners attending Jeff Koons’ topiary sculpture Puppy.
Once opened, however, the Guggenheim quickly proved itself to be a success. The building attracted plaudits worldwide. Even art critic Brian Sewell, known for denouncing almost anything contemporary, dubbed it a modern cathedral. The art and programming has been top-rank, with a succession of serious, high-level exhibitions.
And it has brought people from across the world to Bilbao and the Basque Country. As of this autumn, it has welcomed 24,710,000 total visitors, around a million a year and double the expected numbers. It has led to €6,415,000 of direct expenditure in the Basque Country, generating €5,884,000 in GDP.
The Guggenheim is not the only reason for Bilbao’s renewed success. Two years before it opened, a glittering new metro designed by Norman Foster connected the city and its surroundings. The public space around the museum has been landscaped, turning post-industrial wasteland into pleasant riverside plazas.
Photography by Erika Ede, FMGB, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2017
A bridge and airport by Santiago Calatrava have made the city feel better connected both internally and to the world outside. But the Guggenheim, with its sheer spectacle and mass, has become the icon of the city’s revival.
It has also cast an influence internationally. It was a major factor in the rise of the “starchitect”, the tag attached to a handful of largely American and British architects who achieved a hitherto almost-unknown level of celebrity for their large-scale projects. And it spawned the Bilbao effect: the idea that architectural spectacle can serve as a beacon for regeneration of a place fallen in hard times.
This has been attempted worldwide, with varying degrees of success. But even after a quarter of a century of gargantuan new museums, the Guggenheim remains distinctive for the quality of its design and role in a larger regeneration. It remains an architectural icon par excellence.
