A year-long international architectural design competition is underway to choose a design for the proposed Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki.
The new museum would be located on Helsinki’s South Harbor waterfront. It will host international exhibits of 20th and 21st century art, as well as specializing in Nordic art and architecture, according to a statement on the Guggenheim Foundation’s website.
First proposed three years ago, the project has not been without controversy.
Promoters of the museum project, led by Helsinki mayor, say the city needs the kind of economic boost an internationally recognized institution like the Guggenheim would bring.
“We have to promote Helsinki and that’s why we need some international brands like the Guggenheim,” Mayor Jussi Pajunen, in an article in the New York Times..
In addition to its original museum in New York, the Guggenheim Foundation has built museums in Venice, Italy, and Bilbao, Spain. Another museum will open in Abu Dhabi in 2017. Each year the foundation receives requests from cities around the world asking to be considered as a site for a Guggenheim Museum
Thus, the foundation’s board of directors was caught off-guard when their initial proposal was met with a backlash of harsh criticism. Under that proposal, the Helsinki City Art Museum would be absorbed by the new Guggenheim, decisions concerning the design of the building would rest with the foundation while the city would bear the costs, estimated at $170 million, and finally the foundation would levy a $30 million licensing fee for the use of its name.
The Helsinki city council rejected the proposal in 2012.
The foundation came back with a new proposal last year. Representatives from Helsinki are now on the panel judging the design completion. The licensing fee will not be charged to the city directly. Instead, the foundation will work with the city to raise the money through private sponsorships.
Martin Laine