Most expansion-minded museum directors—in other words, all of them—would be happy just to get a new wing built. But during his seventeen-year tenure at the helm of New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thomas Krens has masterminded an unprecedented buildup, adding far flung Guggenheim branches in Berlin, Las Vegas and, of course, Bilbao. Along with the museum's landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home base in New York and its Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, these outposts have helped Krens usher in an era of museums as global cultural enterprises, not just singular institutions. All the while, his Guggenheim Bilbao, with its famous titanium-clad Frank Gehry design, has set off a rush for iconic architecture in cities around the world vying for a spot on the international cultural map.
However, it hasn't always been easy-going. Despite the staying power of the Guggenheim Hermitage in Las Vegas (a partnership with the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia), another Las Vegas Guggenheim, designed by Rem Koolhaas, closed in early 2003 after just fifteen months. In 2001, the museum shuttered its SoHo branch in New York, while nothing has come of several much-hyped proposals to build a Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim elsewhere in Manhattan. High profile plans for Guggenheims in Rio de Janeiro and Taichung, Taiwan—by renowned architects Jean Nouvel and Zaha Hadid, respectively—are also now on hold.
All this, combined with financial problems exacerbated by both September 11 and the recent recession, has earned Krens his fair share of critics. However, whether visionary or demagogic, no one will dispute that Krens's ambition and daring have made him one of the museum world's most dynamic figures. His patronage of architecture alone has ensured his legacy, and he's showing no signs of slowing. The night before he was to attend a design review for his latest project, a Guggenheim in Guadalajara, Mexico, we caught up with Krens in his home in Tribeca where, between bites of spaghetti, he let us in on what it takes to host a Guggenheim.
What's going on at your design review tomorrow?
We were approached by Guadalajara, which is the second largest city in Mexico, to do a feasibility study for a major 300,000 square-foot museum of modern and contemporary art. Right now, we're working with three architects in a limited competition, and they are [French architect] Jean Nouvel, [New York and Mexico City-based] Enrique Norton, and Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture of [New York-based] Asymptote.
Where are you in the process?
The architects were given a detailed brief at the end of November and essentially have four months to develop a proposal, at which point a jury will select one of them. Obviously, we're working with the architects on this quite a bit and the first round for getting feedback from us was in January. Tomorrow [February 18] is the second. The final submission will be March 18.
How are the plans looking?
The work has been amazing. After the first round, there were three completely different projects, each of them with iconic potential. The site is also extraordinary. It's in the city but on the edge of a canyon, which reminds me of the Grand Canyon. It's huge, gigantic. And the idea is to develop a world-class museum there that takes the discourse of museums to the next level. When I say that, I mean a collection and programming standpoint.
It's easy to lose track of all the Guggenheims.
[laughs] There are currently five: New York, Bilbao, Venice, Berlin, and Las Vegas.
How do you decide what cities you want to open up in?
We don't go looking for cities. Asia and Latin America are very important parts of the world, and so we're interested in their perspectives right now. I don't pick cities. They have to be available for a certain level of cultural development.
What happened to Rio de Janeiro and Taiwan?
There are only two plans that are active right now, the one in Guadalajara and one in Hong Kong. The projects in Taiwan and Rio have been stalled. Rio wants to go forward but the issue just goes back to the complexities of getting projects like these done. In Taiwan, it's stalled because of politics there.
What is the Hong Kong plan and how far along is it?
Quite a ways. It's part of a project, called the West Kowloon Cultural District, that would be a major cultural hub for Hong Kong in West Kowloon, across the harbor from the Central district. It would include a number of museums [including a Guggenheim] and performance venues on 110 acres. [British architect] Norman Foster has developed some of the designs, but it's all in the process for a competition to get a single developer for the entire site.
Given all that's happened with the Guggenheim in the past few years, has your mission changed at all?
The world has changed. But our plan is still to be an international museum that realizes that culture is not just the property of the North Atlantic—Europe and the US—and that Asia and Latin America, for example, have very vibrant contemporary cultures. Often what they lack is the commercial infrastructure to sustain a thriving art market like we have in New York. But these are economies that are moving in that direction, with artists who are doing some amazing work. Our focus is local and global at the same time.
Is there any city in the world that doesn't need a Guggenheim?
Most of them [laughs].
Most expansion-minded museum directors—in other words, all of them—would be happy just to get a new wing built. But during his seventeen-year tenure at the helm of New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thomas Krens has masterminded an unprecedented buildup, adding far flung Guggenheim branches in Berlin, Las Vegas and, of course, Bilbao. Along with the museum's landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home base in New York and its Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, these outposts have helped Krens usher in an era of museums as global cultural enterprises, not just singular institutions. All the while, his Guggenheim Bilbao, with its famous titanium-clad Frank Gehry design, has set off a rush for iconic architecture in cities around the world vying for a spot on the international cultural map.
