After months of discussion and negations, the project for Gugg-Rio – or Gugue as the inhabitants have named it – seems set to go ahead. French architect Jean Nouvel has been commissioned to design it and has come up with a scheme which is largely submerged in the water of the bay of Guanabara (“A small port within a port, an ancient city with a mythological feel a bit like Atlantis” is how Nouvel described it in a recent interview for the local newspaper Globo). The complex extends over 42,000 square metres and will include a conference centre, hotel, shopping centre and restaurants as well as the actual museum. It will be dominated by a 50 metre high cylindrical tower crowned by an viewing gallery and a restaurant with a breathtaking view of the bay.
And if this doesn’t seem less ambitious than the other sites, for the Guggenheim it should not only not cost anything but would bring the foundation 25 million dollars in exchange for the use of the name and artistic patrimony for the next fifty years.
The mayor of Rio, Cesar Maia, is optimistic and as well as getting ready to sign the agreement with Thomas Krens, the director of the Guggenheim on 20 March, is already thinking to the opening, due by the end of 2006.
Related contents:
Obstacles for the Guggenheim in Rio (News, 12.11.2002)
