Architecture News

Guggenheim Says Goodbye to Koolhaas, Hello to Hadid

Architects & Firms

The Guggenheim had also opened a second, larger Vegas museum inside The Venetian—located in a seven-story-tall, 63,700-square-foot industrial-inspired hall—but this space shuttered its doors after only 15 months. Also designed by Koolhaas, that space has since been converted into a theater for the Phantom of the Opera. Both museums were spearheaded by the Guggenheim Foundation’s director, Thomas Krens, who announced in February that he would step down. They opened just one month after the terrorist attacks on September 11th and struggled to gain community support.

The Guggenheim is no doubt hoping that its Vilnius venture, on which it has also partnered with the Hermitage, will be better received—but it is first awaiting the results of a feasibility study. As part of a competition launched in conjunction with that study, Hadid’s design beat out entries from Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas. Her concept calls for a curvy concrete shell, sheathed in aluminum panels, that appears to float over a landscaped strip on the bank of the Neris River. The 139,932-square-foot structure would contain three main volumes articulated as inlays expressed through folds and protrusions of the building envelope. Hadid described it as “a place where you can experiment with the idea of galleries, spatial complexity and movement.”

The feasibility study is expected to finish by mid-June. If the museum gets a green light, no word yet on when it might be built. Vilnius, which is Lithuania’s largest city, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2009.