Museum of Pop Culture - Frank Gehry - Seattle, Washington
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Hikenutty
N 47° 37.268 W 122° 20.870
10T E 549003 N 5274398
The Museum of Pop Culture houses an interactive music museum and it was dubbed by architects as Frank Gehry’s “Rock Temple”. The building’s undulating form and vibrant colors were inspired by an electric guitar, according to Gehry.
Waymark Code: WM1E5E
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 04/17/2007
Views: 374
The Museum of Pop Culture was commissioned by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen to house an interactive music museum and it was dubbed by architects as Frank Gehry’s “Rock Temple”.
The building’s undulating form and vibrant colors were inspired by Gehry’s foray through an electric guitar shops trash bin near his office in Santa Monica. Guitars were cut apart and played with until Gehry found the shape he was looking for. Appropriate muses for a building that Allen dedicated to Jimi Hendrix.
Another way that Gehry’s building breaks with architectural and sculptural tradition is the use of vibrant colors. Most striking is a deep pastel blue rendered with non-fading autobody paint. Other colors are a brilliant red, silver, gold and (my favorite) a shimmering titanium looking color dubbed “purple haze” in reference to Jimi Hendrix’s famous song. In fact the name “Experience Music Project” is taken from Jimi’s famous lyrical question, “Are you experienced?”
The futuristic building is right at home on its site on the Seattle Center grounds, home of the 1962 World’s Fair. Its neighbor is the Space Needle, and nearby are other futuristic buildings, built with the Seattle World’s Fair’s theme of Science and Space in mind. In fact, the Alweg Monorail, a transportation system built for the fair in 1962, passes through a portion of the building. You can see where the track enters the building in one of the photos in the gallery.
The building is 140,000 square feet and aerospace software was used to design the undulating folds of metal found throughout the building. The 21,000 metal shingles that form the outer shell were cut by lasers guided by data generated directly from the modeling software.
The building now also houses the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame. For ticket pricing, and the latest concert schedule, check out the EMP website at www.emplive.org.
Architect: Frank Gehry
Building name: Museum of Pop Culture
Year built: 2000
Building's primary use: Culture/Entertainment
City: Seattle
Country: United States
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