Frank Gehry's LUMA Arles Tower Opens in Parc des Ateliers

The LUMA Foundation, founded in Zurich in 2004 by Maja Hoffmann, a descendant of pharmaceutical magnate Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, has opened LUMA Arles in the Parc des Ateliers, a former SNCF railway workshop area in Arles, France. The 11-hectare creative campus features a 56-meter tower designed by Frank Gehry, clad in 11,000 unique stainless steel panels. The tower houses galleries, performance spaces, archives, and workshops. Gehry drew inspiration from the region's rock formations and Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" (1889), painted while van Gogh was at the Saint-Paul asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. A new six-hectare garden by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets connects the park to the city. The foundation supports projects addressing environment, human rights, education, and culture.