Frank Gehry’s latest cultural project has finally opened in Arles, leaving Southern France with a shimmering tribute that the famed architect says is inspired by its most famous resident.
The LUMA Tower is opening today on the foundation’s 27-acre campus after a 13-year planning effort to give the Parc des Ateliers the centerpiece it had been missing since its founding by collector Hoffman in 2013. Officials are hoping for a Bilbao Effect in the tucked-away Provençal city noteworthy for its place in art history, a vision mayor Patrick de Carolis says will shape life in the former home of Vincent van Gogh.
“It’s also an extraordinary challenge that Arles now has to rise to in terms of having the infrastructure, including hotels and transport, to welcome the visitors it will attract,” he told The Guardian. “Now we have to be able to match that level of ambition.”
Clad in 11,000 stainless steel panels, the 183-foot tower rises above the surrounding rooftops and church spires from a glass rotunda that references the city’s history as a regional epicenter of Roman architecture.
Sun and sky play together on its irregular vertical form which is also influenced by van Gogh’s paintings and the nearby Alpilles mountains. The 92-year-old is referring to the new project as his “first Roman building.”
“I responded sculpturally to the city,” Gehry said in an interview with The Art Newspaper. “There are two important Roman structures that are close to LUMA Arles. It made sense to reinforce that aesthetic to create the entrance and foyer for the building as a drum. It was intuitive, responding sculpturally to what I saw in Arles, and then relating to it in some way.”
Selldorf Architects was also responsible for converting nearby railway manufacturing buildings into space for performance and exhibitions.
The foundation will welcome the new building with an exhibition featuring the works of 45 artists from LUMA’s collection and special commissions by Helen Marten and Olafur Eliasson.
Drone excursion of the expansive art complex. Video courtesy of Luma Arles, Parc des Ateliers.
“I hope the people of Arles will get to know this tower,” Hoffman said. “It represents a notion of hope, an archipelago where everything is possible. It is a place where the past, present, and future come to mix.”
23 Comments
CaliforniaCreativeCenter is still trying to convince Gehry to design it's proposed iconic HQ devoted to climate change education atop Mt Lee in Hollywood.
this one is good all around. It’s not finished by all means before the whole compound is in. We’ll never know what Van Gogh see in it but it could be fun to speculate.
I like this view from the video. It reminded me the conversation about the Morphosis tower all aroundness view to the city and back.
I've always liked how Gehry contrasts the sculptural bits of the project with the unassuming blocky back of house. This tower is truly sculptural in that the funky forms are not some cladding stuck onto boxes (E.g. LV Foundation) but manifest as facade, structure, and space together.
I see that as a failure, not an asset. If you're going to make a sculpture then make a frigging sculpture, don't make some Frankenstein half-building. Even the architectural components don't relate to each other. To describe this as disharmonious would be charitable, discordant would be more accurate.
incoherent
Certainly Frank has outdid himself. This is absolutely fuck-ugly.
You can say that about most of his work. It’s like he’s playing ‘can you top this?’ with himself.
This would have been better if done in brick.
He already did this in brick, a couple times?
The explanation of the drum base of the building as responding to the Roman forms is ridiculous and hilarious. He thinks he’s responding to the architecture of Arles? Stop. Just own it. This is full blown, self-indulgent, self-referential modernist sculpture. Don’t blow smoke up our asses about responding to context.
The view down on that flat roof is pretty awful. Is that a response to Roman prototype mechanical ductwork?
Fits rather well in its context, if the context was a 19th century painting...
(pic is a repost from previous article)
Contrasts are supposed to be interesting. Unfortunately, this looks like a dog's breakfast and will probably not give the town a Bilbao effect, assuming that's a desirable thing. Bilbao is pure sculpture from the outside and ideally sited. On this one, the shimmering part looks good as sculpture, but it's robbed of elegance sitting on a stout podium and stiffened by a blocky backbone. As for how it functions, who knows.
Strong contender for the "decorated shed" category winner in the new architecture competition we are launching.
Deconstructivism is so yesterday.
Wasn't this one on Venturi's fave buildings, the decorated shed?
Wait, that's a duck.
A duckerated shed.
20 years on and its the same fucking bullshit against Frank Gehry. He's a solid architect who helped to profoundly change the landscape we work in. And he's a solid fucking architect. Doesnt mean I cant like a fucking salt box or some fucking shingles, some Tuscan columns or a good Vincent Sculley lecture. Doesnt mean he's flawless. I dont have to like all his work. 20 years ago I signed up to archinect, just cuz i was tired of the negativity regarding Frank. And 20 years fucking later its the same fucking shit except my balls have gray hairs.
I have no idea what this means, but think you should be given an architecture criticism column in the NY Times.
just sayin
Lassie must have gotten lost.
I this an effective piece of abstract expressionist sculpture. As an object, I think it’s interesting, and it looks like it’s beautifully detailed. The cladding is fascinating, it must have been a challenge to figure out how to keep the water out.
The base of the building seems mundane and under-detailed, by contrast. In my opinion, this is common with Gehry’s work. He’s a sculptor, who’s most interested in creating objects to be viewed holistically, from a distance. He’s always prioritized the low-resolution, the scale of the very large, at the expense of the scale of the very small, the human scale. A walk around the Disney Hall here in LA, at ground level will tell you that. He’s seems uninterested in the the high-resolution experience of people at a few meters distance. If I were cynical about it, I’d say he’s more interested in the Architectural Record photo than he is in the experience of the citizen on the sidewalk.
What I find baffling is his insistence that this design was shaped in response to the context of the city and countryside. That feels revere-engineered to me. I don’t really think he cares at all about responding to the context of Arles.
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