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The 'miracle' of the Guggenheim
BILBAO, Spain (CNN) -- American Frank Gehry set the standard for combining art with architecture when he designed the Guggenheim museum in the centre of Bilbao. The museum was praised as one of the "most profound and brilliant works of architecture of our time" by the New York Times in 1989 and was voted building of the 20th century by Time magazine. "The miracle that happened in Bilbao is just that -- it's a miracle. It was all the planets aligned at one moment," explains architect Gehry. The building has become an icon for the city, says Guggenheim director Juan Ignacio Vidartes. "By having that kind of architectural quality and prominence, it has set a very high standard for whatever is built in Bilbao and has been a very good thing that happened to the city." For Gehry, it was a case of trying to understand the space around the site. "I look at the spaces between things...architecture is about space and form, and surface, and I look at the context of the chaos, the world, the built environment... and try to understand it." He designed a building that Vidartes says "reacts very well to the urban environment, not trying to replicate it but on the other hand it looks familiar. It doesn't look odd although it's different. "Over about a year or so we built up mock-ups of Bilbao and watched the material under different lights and photographed it. "I found a peace of titanium -- it looked beautiful, I said nail it to the post out there, we did and by miracle it rained that day, because in Southern California it doesn't rain very much, and the piece turned golden." Despite the praise, Gehry still has doubts about his creation.
"I feel insecure, and I look at it and I think: 'Gee, it isn't as good as I could do.' "It's totally bonkers to feel that way but I haven't been able to beat it. At the end of the day you start to rely on what the public does -- in the case of Bilbao the public just loved it." With the success of Bilbao, many clients have asked Gehry to replicate the "miracle." "Since Bilbao it's been a little precarious. A lot of people come and want me to pull off the miracle for them and I would say more than 80 percent of those I turn away."
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