The Common Criticisms of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Continuing our last discussion of re-thinking “design” for our open spaces, I believe the Balboa Park and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao would be a good case study to examine my point.

The common criticisms of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao are that it is an iconic building with monstrous style and a “look at me” attitude. Many believe facilities like Museum Bilbao do not respect local communities and tend to be an extreme expense that leads to privatization without giving anything back to the surrounding streets.

“The project fails miserably as a public space, missing a significant opportunity to celebrate and support the cultural and community life that is pulsating throughout the city” — Hall Of Shame Archive

But are those statements and common understandings factual? Let’s take a look at the open spaces of Balboa Park and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Balboa Park appears not iconic and close to human scale

Spanish colonial revival style

Balboa park sits on a 1,200 acres historical urban park in San Diego, California. It was built around 1868 and designed by multiple architects and designers with mainly Spanish colonial revival style. You might think those buildings are not iconic. But if you put yourself in the era of the 1800s, you might see it differently. During that period, most of the houses in America looked like the images below, which were in contrast to the richly ornamented Spanish colonial architecture. Perhaps for those people from the 1860s, these buildings were pretty “iconic.”

Image by Sara K Lyons via web — Image via web

Getting to the park

There are many ways to access Balboa Park, including walking, biking, shuttle buses, and vehicles. The Park is within walking distance from adjacent neighborhoods, including North Park, South Park, Bankers Hill, Cortez Hill, Marston Hills, etc.

However, vehicles would be a common choice if you want to visit the main attraction clusters (19 buildings). There are two roads to get to the museums: visitors can drive from the Cabrillo Bridge from the west side to the main park entrance or go from I-5 and connect to the Park Boulevard at the east side to enter the Park. Visitors can also take the bus (route 7 or 215) to enter the Park from Park Boulevard. Regardless of which method, this Park is not within walking distance from the nearby residential neighborhoods. The sidewalks surrounding the main building clusters are also not pedestrian-friendly.

Is Guggenheim Museum Bilbao merely iconic? Does it fail at human scale?

Gehry’s distinctive style

There are theories about why Gehry’s work looks the way it does, such as de-constructivism or architectural “folds.” Regardless of whether you like its curvature look or not, I am sure we all agree that this museum is still pretty “ iconic “ even after 23 years since it was built.

Getting to the museum

Interestingly, there is also a “human” side of this gigantic edifice. Even Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is adjacent to the highway (Salbeko Zubia), most visitors do not drive to the site. There are typically three types of users going to the location: the metro users, the light-rail users, and nearby residents. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is perceived quite modestly when approached by these three users.

From metro station

Metro visitors would get out of the metro station (Moyua) and then take Iparraguirre Street to get to the site. (3) While they are walking on Iparraguirre Street, they can only get a glimpse of the museum behind the gigantic artwork “Puppy.” After 5–7 mins of walk (0.3 miles), “Puppy” and the museum’s theatrical signage welcome visitors’ arrival.

From light rail station

If visitors approach the museum from the light rail station (Guggenheim stop), visitors will walk along a boulevard that has trees on both sides. The museum only reveals its curvature body through the gaps of leaves.

From nearby neighborhoods

There are limited on-site parking spaces (only 50 spaces); therefore, the nearby residents likely jog or bike to the museum’s open space. If they run from nearby Inglesen Landako park (which also offers underground public parking), the tree canopy would also hide this “monster building” behind.

Suppose jogging or biking from the green Uribitarte passage on the east side, the La Salve bridge tower will block visitors’ view towards the museum. The building complex (average 12–15 stories) along the river will also make the museum relatively small.

The only way visitors can experience its mega-scale is when they arrive at the tourist information center on the west side of Mazarredo Street. There, the vast plaza and the scale of the Puppy would make visitors feel relatively small.

View at Bilbao tourist information center

Balboa Park succeeds as a great public space

Accommodating various types and attractions of outdoor spaces

Experts compliment that Balboa Park offers excellent outdoor rooms and amenities that people want. That statement is true. Since the Park covers 1,200 acres of land, it can accommodate many gardens and extras, such as the 12 tourist attractions and 19 various size gardens.

Making positive contribution to the nearby neighborhoods

Based on the calendar at the Park’s official website, they offer events year-round. Those events are not limited to leisure and involve community engagement, for instance, the Park’s sustainability program. Using the Park itself to educate the public about sustainability and engaging the community with other sustainability programs.

Does Guggenheim Museum Bilbao fail miserably as a public space?

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao only covers eight acres

Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao only covers 8 acres (350,000 square feet) of land, which is hard to compete with the number of outdoor amenities they can provide. But that doesn’t mean it does not have quality public spaces.

There are a couple of open spaces around the museum for people to hang out: the bridge at the north side of the museum and the westside plaza adjacent to the Park.

The pedestrian bridge at the north side of museum

Though there is no bench on the pedestrian bridge at the north, the designer lowers the bridge knee walls and widens the edge to function as a bench. The bridge is slightly elevated from the water and stretched toward the river, which becomes a great lookout spot. People enjoy watching sceneries of the Nervion River and activities across the river. The reflection pond also offers the proper distance between the museum and visitors. In this way, visitors could take a better photo of the museum’s provocative look. The nearby restaurant Nerua offers people an alternative view if they want to rest indoors.

West side plaza adjacent to the park

This flexible-use open space (40,000 square feet) area is almost the same as the Plaza de Panama (41,000 square feet) in Balboa Park in San Diego. The pavement on the west side of the museum might seem dry and dull, but its flat surface is complimentary of the extension of events that happen in the nearby Park. The designer also positioned a gentle-sloped grand stair to face this open space between the museum and Park. So, visitors could enjoy any activities or future on-site performances from the stairs.

Plaza de Panama in front of the San Diego Museum of Art

Park view from north plaza pananma-mix.png

West end plaza between Jolastokia and the Guggenheim Museum

Linear recreation zone across the Nervion river

The boardwalk with a bike lane along the north side of the Nervion River offers local people a nice recreation area. This linear zone (6' sidewalk + 4' tree planting zone+ 5' bike lanes.) provides people a different pace from their busy city life. The traditional style benches are quietly placed facing toward the river and looking into the museum’s 90 feet tall canopy and its atrium glass. Although this linear stripe is not within the museum’s footprint, it functions similar to an extended outdoor gallery section (and the museum itself is the artwork).

James Bond’s legendary scene on the Salbeko Zubia bridge above the river. image via twitter

What is the main takeaway?

Go back to our topic of “design” in open spaces. Design is not only the form or the style of a place as the general public commonly conceives. I believe many designers had imagined how potential life could be before they put lines on drawing boards.

Thanks to those journalists such as Jean Jacob and Fred Kent, we are fortunate to have a society that values development processes’ transparency. On the other hand, if a project does not require community involvement as part of the development procedure, it does not mean the decision-makers do not consider the local community. (In this case, is the residences live close to Guggenheim Museum Bilbao)

Fred Kent once said, “Great places are about what people do in them, and how they feel, use, and ‘own’ those places.”

I completely agree with that statement.

Design could be calligraphy that prompts people to find their ingredients in life and interactions with each other. The style of chairs in the parks is design; the mindset of making chairs movable (so that users can turn to any direction and feel “owning” it) is also design. The form of the bridge is design; the intention of widening its edge (so people can sit anywhere and feel “free”) is also design. The shape of bike racks is design; the thought of making a flat and safe environment for bikers is also design.

Perhaps it’s time for us to re-think what design is, so we can try to understand when we see those kinky constructions next time.

By the way, both places appeared on the screens…

I think both the residences in San Diego and Bilbao would feel they “belong” to those places when they see their cities appear on the movie screen.

Presumably, only Bilbao citizens will think “this is MY city” when they see their museum appears on James Bond’s “The World is Not Enough.” The same psychological influence also happens to San Diego folks when they see their Balboa Park featured in the film “Citizen Kane.”

Notes and References:

“A Conversation with Fred Kent, Leader in Revitalizing City Spaces”, Samantha Michaels, The Atlantic.
“Bilbao’s Guggenheim Continue to Divide”, Guy Hedgecoe, Helen Whittle, Deutsche Welle.
Balboa Park Cultural Partnership is the major partner work along side with Balboa Park for its sustainability program.
The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, in collaboration with its member organizations, the City of San Diego, and San Diego Gas & Electric, has already made 10 buildings inside the Balboa LEED certified. This means they have achieved sustainability fundamental evaluations such as: energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste reduction, green purchasing, transportation, and more within buildings.
According to Guggenheim Bilbao - the building. The reason why they use titanium plate cladding to replace copper or lead is because of material’s toxicity to water. In the beginning designers want to use stainless steel, but realized titanium adding better color changes on the weather and light conditions. Also a side note, there are approximately 33,000 extremely thin titanium sheets using for this building. Just as the construction drawings for the building were being issued, in the mid-1990s, Russia decided to sell its entire titanium reserve, sending prices plummeting.
October 18 is Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s birthday. The museum was inaugurated on 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, with an exhibition of 250 contemporary works of art.

Last update: 7.13.2021