Firm： Sharon Tzarfati Photography

Type： Commercial › Exhibition Center Pop-Up Cultural › Cultural Center Gallery

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2021

SIZE： 100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

BUDGET： $100M +

Luma Arles

Architect: Frank Gehry

The museum occupies a 27-acre creative campus at the parc des ateliers in the city of Arles, France.

The museum’s opening exhibition will show work by over 45 artists and designers. the tower hosts exhibition galleries, project spaces, and the luma’s research and archive facilities, alongside workshop and seminar rooms. the newly completed structure is defined by its twisting, rippling geometry — finished with 11,000 stainless steel panels — that boldly stands out from the modest fabric of the city.

Topping out at 180 feet, it’s the jagged, metallic top half of the Tower that’s prompted most of the negative online clamor. There’s more to the 12-story building, however: the Tower itself sits atop a metal-framed, glass-sheathed drum 177 feet in diameter that nods to the nearby Arles Amphitheatre.