The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is often held up as the example Dundee should aspire to with its V&A project. The Courier’s Graeme Ogston visited to find out how Dundee can gain its own “Guggenheim Effect”.
“The speed of the construction is very important, so people can see the change,” says Guggenheim Bilbao’s Begona Martinez-Goyenga.
“Politicians and citizens who said it was crazy and really expensive and that we were wasting people’s money now are very proud and think it is the best thing in the city.
“It has put Bilbao on the international map. Most of us couldn’t see that before.”
Their new-found appreciation is understandable. Visited by over one million people last year, demand generated by the museum’s activities in 2014 was around 336m euros, with additional tax revenue to the Basque treasuries of 45.7 million euros.
Work began at the rundown industrial waterfront area in 1993 and the museum opened to the public in October 1997, an incredible achievement given the scale and complexity of the Frank Gehry-designed building.
One factor was the use of skilled former shipbuilders who were familiar working with large, complex curved metal structures.
Ms Martinez-Goyenga, associate director of communications and marketing at the museum, said: “The construction time was not too long, four years from nothing to everything.
“It was quite easy to begin seeing the benefits of the building and why we chose Frank Gehry, the best in the world, and were not more modest. Now people love the museum.”
The building also came in under its $100 million budget, which was watched like a hawk by those involved.
“We worked with a cost model,” Ms Martinez-Goyenaga said. “We had an amount and we could not go over.”
There was a close collaboration between the architect and the executive architect.
“So, if (the budget) grew in one part we had to come down in another one.The budget was quite ambitious, but it was not a small one which needed to grow to be possible.”
Public opinion remained divided during the early stages of the building’s construction.
Ms Martinez-Goyenaga said: “There were two views. The biggest was people who didn’t think it was a good idea because it was a very large and expensive project and people always think there are other priorities.
“It’s difficult to visualise something like that, because there was nothing there (at the site).
“It was like an idea that some people could imagine at the end of it, but most of us couldn’t.
Ms Martinez-Goyenaga said the pre-Guggenheim waterfront area was not one she visited as a child.
“Bilbao is an industrial city,” she said. “There were factories by the river that were closed. It was quite dirty and ugly there and people couldn’t go walking by the river.
“The Guggenheim project allowed us to recover this side of the river and now it is the most popular area for the locals and visitors. It is the most beautiful place in the city.
“It was a place you couldn’t stay before. It was not ready for people and families and tourists at all.”
Only €28m of the income generated last year was actually spent in the museum with the area seeing the wider benefits.
“The other amount was spent in hospitality, retail sales, cultural activity and transportation,” Ms Martinez-Goyenaga said.
“The economic impact is very big. There was a perception we should change our model of city if we wanted to have more visitors.
“Now four or five times a year you can see big exhibitions of the biggest artists in the world.
“That has changed the interest of the normal people who were not used to this.
“Now we feel very proud and we feel more cosmopolitan as well.”’It represents the regeneration of a city’Local feeling once ran so high against the Guggenheim Bilbao that protests were even held outside the construction site.
Iaki Esteban, author of TheGuggenheim Effect, and a journalist forBilbao newspaper El Correo, said mostpeople were against the museum becausethe Basque country was in a “really badsituation” at the time.
He said: “At that time it wasimpossible to see a museumregenerate the city.During the constructionthere were demonstrationsin front of the building byartists and unions.
“Therewas a very strong opposition,not just from those people butalso from the Nationalistparty, which is quitetraditional in thecultural sense.
“They asked whyweshould havean American museum.The mainpoint wasdo we need a museum or should we investthe money in other things like industry?”
Mr Esteban said the turning point onlycame when the museum opened.
He said: “In the first three monthsthere were a lot of people coming from allover the world and that was a sign for thepeople to change their minds.
“The public opinion here is usuallyquite emotional. If you askedthem twenty years ago and said it wouldregenerate the city and bring jobs,people didn’t believe you. It was quiteimpossible to imagine theGuggenheim would have that effect.
“When you have something like amuseum and people come from allover the world, you reflect and lookat the Guggenheim and say wow,it’s beautiful and I ambeautiful also. So the pride comes out of thepeople.
“It representsthe regeneration of acity reborn out ofnothing.”’Trust and reliability are very important’A leading Bilbao academic says honestyover the budget of major developments likethe Guggenheim and V&A at Dundee is vitalto win public trust.
Last week the Courier revealed that theScottish Government knew months beforethe public that the cost of the V&A would farexceed the initial £45 million budget.
Professor of cultural economics at theUniversity of the Basque Country, BeatrizPlaza said: “In the case of Bilbao, everythingwas planned beforehand. The deviation inbudget was close to zero.
“Trust and reliability are very important inthese cases.I’m surprised they (Dundee) didn’t revealthe real budget in the very beginning. In thecase of the Guggenheim, it was more expensive than the V&A Dundee, but even sothey set the real figure from the start.”
Ms Plaza said that the Guggenheim wasone of the only publicly-funded parts ofBilbao’s 2,000 million euros transformation,which included a new airport, subway andsewage system.
She said: “During a large regenerationproject, you need a quick win. Something thatpeople can see the benefits of straight away. The Guggenheim was a quick win.
“But it’s not enough to just have a nicebuilding. The official discourse is investing to attract tourism, it doesn’t work that way.
“Citizens of the city have to feel their quality oflife improves. They use the city moreintensively in the public spaces so whentourists come they feel comfortable, becausethey mix with local people.
“Tourists are notlike monkeys in cages – they like to mix withlocals and have a taste of the city.”