Today’s architectural post- traumatic-stress syndrome—call it Bilbao Fatigue—was brought on by a glut of increasingly outré museums calculated to attract media attention, rather than enhance understanding of art. Copious evidence confirms the folly of overspending spurred by the premise that extravagant museum expansions will pay for themselves with increased attendance and tourism revenues. It took years for the Basque government to recoup its enormous investment in the Bilbao Guggenheim, because the museum’s director, Thomas Krens, off-loaded almost all up-front expenses on the overeager franchisee.
Several institutions that dreamed of Bilbao-like bonanzas have had rude awakenings. Santiago Calatrava’s bird-shaped Quadracci Wing for the Milwaukee Museum of Art so exceeded cost estimates that municipal authorities were forced to bail out the city’s foundering cultural system. Big budget overruns have compelled the Denver Art Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto—both designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind—to lay off large numbers of employees.
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