Frank Gehry’s Luma Arles Taking Shape in France

Gehry recently completed a building extension for Facebook’s campus in Palo Alto, CA. His renovation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is still underway. (See Feature on Gehry on following pages.)

The tower’s opening date isn’t until spring 2020, but these photos show the irregular form of the metallic tower taking shape above the city of Arles.

American architectural critic Frank Miller described Gehry’s design as a “stainless-steel tornado”; others have compared it to crumpled drink cans and even a haunted house. Due to be 184 feet high when complete, Gehry’s design for the facade is supposed to echo the craggy rock formations found near the city, the same kind that inspired sometime-resident Vincent van Gogh to paint them in 1888.