Piano’s new modern wing at the Art Institute of Chicago opens Saturday. The slide show is here.
It does indeed look stunning. And what a difference from Piano’s most recent clunker museum, BCAM in LA.
This one seems to resonate with elements from two of the greatest modern museum projects of recent years: Tadao Ando’s water-and-air Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth, and the glowing, classical-echoing Steven Holl addition to the Nelson-Atkins.
Tacoma Art Museum by Antoine Predock is still the place to go in the Northwest for extraordinary museum architecture.
Reason number 9,006 why Chicago is the best city in the world.
If there’s one thing you can say about the BCAM, it’s that it definitely looks like it belongs in LA…
oooohhhh Shiny!
That slideshow is great. I love Chicago.
There’s not a damn thing wrong with the new SAM, you know. The Venturi building is an embarrassment to the human race, yes, but the new building, while boring — just another skyscraper — serves its function very well, and integrates into the street better than most. It’s interesting that none of the photos of the new AIC wing even bother to show how it meets its urban function — all I can see is plaza. It is very beautiful though.