STAR ARCHITECTS UNVEIL DESIGNS FOR ABU DHABI MUSEUMS

Designs have been presented in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, for three museums designed by the celebrity architects Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando, as well as for a sprawling, spaceshiplike performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid, reports Hassan Fattah for the New York Times. Gehry’s building is intended for an Adu Dhabi branch of the Guggenheim featuring contemporary art and Nouvel’s for a classical museum, possibly an outpost of the Louvre. Ando’s is to house a maritime museum reflecting the history of the Arabian gulf. The project also calls for a national museum and a biennial exhibition space composed of nineteen pavilions designed by smaller names and snaking along a canal that cuts through Saadiyat Island, where the cultural district is to be developed. Art schools and an art college are also planned. “It’s like a clean slate in a country full of resources,” said Gehry. More pictures of the museum designs are available at the design blog Dezeen: Click here for Gehry’s, here for Nouvel’s, and here for Hadid’s.