Crystal Palace

Frank Gehry’s lastest museum project, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, opens this month within the Bois de Boulogne at the western edge of Paris. It’s like nothing the city has seen before, muscular and delicate, utilitarian and fantastic, a marriage of cultural ambition and private enterprise. The $143 million Fondation Louis Vuitton was commissioned by Bernard Arnault, the chairman and C.E.O. of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton, as a contemporary museum and cultural center, and it is not only its architecture that is unusual. Construction began in 2008, and the finished product looks like sails, or a boat, maybe a whale – not a surprise, as Gehry is fond of all – but ultimately it looks like a crystal palace that’s in the middle of an explosion.

Arnault- himself a major art collector- was hoping to reinforce a connection between his company and advanced art and design. The mission for the Fondation Louis Vuitton is to support the arts and education. The gallery sections- which will house a corporate collection featuring works by Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, and others- are covered in a white fiber reinforced concrete with curving glass pieces. The building also features an auditorium facing a waterfall that tumbles down a series of steps and helps bring natural light down into the space, which will be used for LVMH fashion shows. Tres chic.