American Scientist

The new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has been called one of the most complex and significant buildings of the 20th century. Engineers marvel at its structure, and architects flock to see its texture and space. Indeed, even before Museo Guggenheim Bilbao—or just Bilbao for short—was completely finished, the building was the setting for the awarding of the 1997 Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the architectural profession. This is all quite an achievement for a structure whose stories, although perhaps difficult to define but certainly no more than about three, are nowhere near in number those of the soaring skyscrapers that have generally been the focus of architectural and structural attention throughout the 20th century.