Now soaring over the French city of Arles, Frank Ghery and his team have nearly completed LUMA Arles Art and Research Center, a twisting tower clad in reflective aluminum tiles, as part of an arts center established by Swiss collector Maja Hoffmann.
Formed of a concrete core with a steel frame, the tower is set to reach 56 meters high when complete, showcasing a unique façade of glass boxes and shining aluminum panels stacked around an irregular formation above a circular glass atrium.
The design was said to resemble rock formations found near the city, the same kind that inspired sometime-resident Vincent van Gogh to paint them in 1888. Inside, the atrium recalls the Roman Amphitheatre in Arles, part of the city’s designated UNESCO World Heritage site.
Built on a plot that occupies a former rail depot, the tower connects two former rail structures which had been recently converted into exhibition facilities by New York-based firm Selldorf Architects. An artistic program is already presented all-year-round in the refurbished former railway warehouses. The building includes a resource center designed by Gehry; several industrial buildings, five of which have been restored by Selldorf Architects, and a public park designed by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets.
Maja Hoffmann has contributed €150 million (US$167 million) to the project, through her LUMA Foundation, set up to support independent artists. The pharmaceutical heiress to the Hoffmann-La Roche fortune grew up in Arles and continues her family’s patronage of the city.
Construction on the tower started after the ground-breaking ceremony in April 2014, with the opening planned for spring 2020.
For more on this story, go to Architectural Digest.