Bil-bastian

Our trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian was wonderful. We spent most of our time at these two places: the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry in Bilbao and the beach in San Sebastian. All of the pictures are of these two locations. Some of the pictures are not mine-- such as the interior shots of the Museum and a few of the beach-- they are a collection of pictures from myself, Karen, Melissa, and Adam. The Guggenheim didnt allow pictures inside, so we had to sneak some with our point-and-shoot cameras.

Almost any architecture student when asked about Frank Gehry will make some kind of disgusted facial expression and tell you how he always does the same thing and they dont like him for one reason or another. I was this way until about 4 months ago when I watched a documentary on him done by his good friend and director Sidney Pollack -- which, if anyone gets the chance to watch, should take the time to do so. I was still skeptical and didnt quite understand what the big deal was. After seeing the Guggenheim, I can see why he has such a following. Not only was it sculptural and dynamic on the outside, but the inside as well. His sense of scale is amazing, the structure is something sculptural in itself -- connections with 6 or 8 beams coming together in a mass of welds and bolts were absolutely incredible. Almost 11 years old now, its still one of the most cutting-edge pieces of architecture that exists.

The art inside was just as good. An entire exhibition hall was full of sculptures by Richard Serra (fifth picture down). The building seemed like it could have been designed specifically to house these amazing pieces of curved steel. Although the art was very good and included an exhibit on the Surrealists (also quite fitting for this particular building) we spent most of our time admiring the architecture -- I say admire because although we tried to diesect how it was built and designed, it often ended with us just giving up because of the complexity of it all.