July 2021 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold, the Luma Arts Tower, Arles, France; architects: Frank Gehry Anabelle Selldorf, Selldorf Architects. Arles, you recall, was the headquarters of the painter Vincent Van Gogh in his prime (1888-89). And so the idea in recent years has been to stuff the old town near the Mediterranean Sea with arts-related tourist venues. And who is the grand poobah for designing arts museums? Why, Ol’ Frank, who kicked off the craze with his Guggenheim museum replicant in Bilbao, Spain (est. 1993), a fantasia of polished titanium panels that wowed the world. Of course, that was then, this is now. One problem is that post-Covid-19, global tourism is way down, and may never recover — at least not to the degree it was humming pre-Covid-19. We’ll have to stand by on exactly how that works out. The Luma Arts Tower is clad with polished stainless steel panels. Perhaps titanium has become too expensive and a bit fey. “We wanted to evoke the local, from Van Gogh’s Starry Night to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region,” Mr. Gehry told the media. The question with just about all of Mr. Gehry’s masterpieces is: how do you possibly expect to maintain a structure constructed of exotic custom components, and of course, the answer is you probably won’t be able to fix anything that breaks, fails, or ages-out. The decline of tourism will therefore probably shorten its design life. Such is the hubris of our time. In the meantime, enjoy the twinkle!

Thanks to Ray Sawhill (and others) for the nomination.