Page 18 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2001)

Guggenheim Las Vegas MUSEUM

Opening Date OCTOBER 7, 2001

Location THE VENETIAN REsORT-HOTEL-CAsINO
3355 LAs VEGAs BOuLEVARD sOuTH
LAs VEGAs, NV 89109 usA

The Guggenheim Las Vegas was conceived for the
contemporary painting and sculpture, to architecture and
presentation of special exhibitions, ranging from
Rem Koolhaas/Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA),

approximately 210-feet-long, 160-feet-wide, and 70-feet-high.
Museum Architecture: The main gallery in the 63,700-square-foot building is
The largest gallery features a 70-foot by 70-foot pivoting door,
as well as a functioning industrial bridge crane—hovering
close to the ceiling and suspended from tracks at either side
of the space—with a lifting capacity of 35 tons. The main floor
Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Museum Description: design, and multi-media art.
which can either be covered with 21 five-ton trench covers to
create a single level, or the trench covers can be selectively
removed to reveal the galleries on the lower level. The lower
level is accessed either by escalators or via a 30-foot-wide
lime green processional staircase. A skylight in the ceiling—
125-feet by 70-feet—features motorized trap covers, located
Architect: of the large gallery is breached by a 210-foot by 30-foot trench,
on the roof, which can either filter out all natural light or be
fully open to the sky. In a gesture to the Las Vegas aesthetic,
Koolhaas has covered the underside of the skylight with a
large-scale facsimile of the central scene from Michelangelo’s
sistine Chapel ceiling. A media wall that is 60-feet-high and
120-feet-wide comprises the northern wall of the main gallery.

The Art of the Motorcycle, which was first presented at the
solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1998. With more than 120
motorcycles on display, the exhibition chronicles the most
compelling moments in motorcycle design and technology. The
exhibition explores the motorcycle as a quintessential symbol
of the Modern age. The installation, designed by architect
Guggenheim Las Vegas and to the materials of the motorcycles
frank Gehry, responds both to the scale of Koolhaas’s
themselves. Gehry’s building-within-a-building features
enormous, curved polished stainless steel walls, towering
chain-link curtains, glass floors and partitions, large-scale
graphics, and a sophisticated interpretation of the curators’
Opening Exhibition: The inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim Las Vegas is
This exhibition is made possible by BMW Motorcycles and

Robert Goldstein, President, The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino

proudly sponsored by Delta Air Lines.

sponsor: narrative. Thomas Krens, Director, solomon R. Guggenheim foundation
Project Leadership:

16 WORLD of ART