This year marks the 50th anniversary of Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum, which opened in Fort Worth in 1972, and the 25th for Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, which opened in Spain in 1997. The 25 years that separate the two monuments mark a deep philosophical shift in architecture, from Kahn’s long interest in the idea of eternal architectural truths (many originating in ancient Mediterranean cultures) to Gehry’s inspiration in contemporary art (which he found in Venice, California, just down the road from his office). Kahn could not have seen the shift coming, and Gehry has never looked back: one vision didn’t grow out of the other. The shift was abrupt.
The two museums represent a fork in the road. Despite the cavernous gap that separates both design approaches, however, visitors across the decades have appreciated each as a compelling version of the “delight” that Vitruvius called for in architecture, along with “firmness” and “commodity.”
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