Christophe Le Gac critiques Frank Gehry's LUMA Arles tower as a failed architectural centerpiece

Christophe Le Gac offers a critical perspective on Frank Gehry's 56-meter tower for the LUMA Arles foundation in a September 2021 artpress article. The review contrasts Gehry's stainless steel-clad structure, described as resembling a generic agricultural shed, with the successful landscape park designed by Bas Smets that unifies the Parc des Ateliers site. Maja Hoffmann, heir to the Roche laboratories fortune, established the foundation, transforming Arles into an international contemporary art destination through her patronage of artists like Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno. The article details practical shortcomings: confusing circulation patterns, a non-air-conditioned greenhouse section, and accessibility issues with gravel paths despite a dedicated PMR building. Gehry's design references local Roman arenas but results in what Le Gac calls an "atrocious cylinder" with poorly integrated metal tubes. Interior spaces are criticized for being poorly planned, citing congestion around Carsten Höller's installation Isometric Slides. The foundation complex includes restored SNCF workshops by architect Annabelle Selldorf and faces the École nationale supérieure de la photographie by Marc Barani. While praising Smets' landscape work and Hoffmann's philanthropic impact, the review questions why major patrons repeatedly commission Gehry despite declining functional and aesthetic results since the Guggenheim Bilbao.