While originally scheduled for 2012, the Louvre鈥檚 first museum outside of Paris should be worth the wait
2016 is set to be the year that several long-delayed projects finally complete, and others will hopefully get off the ground. 黑洞社区鈥檚 look at some of the highlights to come in the year ahead continues with the Abu Dhabi Louvre.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Despite years of delay, the opening of the Louvre鈥檚 first museum outside Paris remains one of the world鈥檚 most eagerly anticipated cultural events. First scheduled to open in 2012, the museum鈥檚 most recent missed completion date was the end of 2015. It is now currently expected to open at the end of the year. Its eye-watering budget of 拢540m and its spectacular suspended dome engraved with a patterned geodesic filigree means it is likely to be worth the wait. The museum, designed by Jean Nouvel, will also be the key component of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District, an extraordinary complex of art institutions being designed by some of the world鈥檚 most eminent architects including Foster, Hadid and Tadao Ando. With typical regional sangfroid no official reason has ever been given for the Louvre鈥檚 successive delays, but it is suspected that finance and supply bottlenecks created by the United Arab Emirates鈥� current huge building boom might well be to blame. Despite its prolonged construction the museum is by no means the most delayed major cultural project in the region. Heneghan Peng鈥檚 monumental Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza was scheduled to complete last August but will now not open until 2018 at the earliest.
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