Museums as Urban Catalysts: The Role of Urban Design in Flagship Cultural Development

Abstract

A long-held urban redevelopment strategy has been the investment in flagship cultural projects—large-scale, iconic museums and arts centres that are intended to enhance the city image while catalyzing private sector investment and attracting tourists to the surrounding area. This paper concentrates on an aspect of the flagship cultural strategy that has received surprisingly little focused attention—the role that urban design and context play in realizing project outcomes. The analysis concentrates on two established flagship museums in Los Angeles and San Jose, California. The research demonstrates that certain urban design characteristics can negatively affect the ability of a project to attract visitors and generate commercial activity. However, at the same time, factors beyond the local context may be an overriding factor in project outcomes thus calling into question the concept of cultural catalyst.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Quentin Stevens and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

 1. According to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Annual Report (2005), the museum attracted 965 000 visitors in 2005 and generated €1.36 billion since its 1997 opening.

 2. Hoping to generate a ‘Disney effect’, plans are currently under way for the Grand Avenue Project, the latest large-scale, mixed-use complex intended to recentre the city around Bunker Hill.

 3. Interview with Donald Cosgrove, former Deputy Administrator, Community Redevelopment Agency, Pasadena, CA, 24 February and 10 March 2005.

 4. Interview with Richard Koshalek, former Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Pasadena, CA, 15 March 2005.

 5. Interview, Cosgrove; Interview with Donald Spivak, Deputy Administrator, Community Redevelopment Agency, Los Angles, 22 February 2005.

 6. A 12-screen cineplex and the Bella Lewitzky Dance Gallery were initially planned for California Plaza, but never built (Community Redevelopment Agency, 1981).

 7. Interview, Cosgrove; Helfeld, Edward, former Director, Community Redevelopment Agency, 9 March 2005 (telephone); Koshalek; Interview with Randy Murphy, Director of Administration, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 18 February 2005; Interview with Jack Wiant, Chief Financial Officer, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 18 February 2005.

 8. Interview, Wiant. Additionally, as Cosgrove notes, “it got down to such nitty-gritty as the developer saying that the museum café could have no more than 75 seats and could not have hot food” (Interview, Cosgrove).

 9. Interview, Murphy; Wiant.

10. Interview with Ericka Clark, former Director of Development, Museum of Contemporary Art, Pasadena, CA, 15 March 2005.

11. Interview, Clark; Koshalek; Murphy; Wiant.

12. San Jose Museum of Art. Available at http://www.sjmusart.org/ (accessed 20 March 2006). Telephone interview with Josi Callan, former Director, San Jose Museum of Art, 5 October 2005; Interview with Daniel Keegan, Director, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, 13 October 2005.

13. Interview with Dennis Korabiak, Downtown Coordinator, San Jose Redevelopment Agency, San Jose, 6 October 2005; Interview with Harry Mavrogenes, Executive Director, San Jose Redevelopment Agency, San Jose, 6 October 2005.

14. Inteview, Korabiak.

15. Interview, Mavrogenes.

16. Interview, Mavrogenes; Korabiak.

17. Santana Row. Available at www.santanarow.com (accessed 1 April 2006).

18. Interview, Keegan.

19. Interview, Knies; Interview with Lorraine Wallace Rowe, President, Coalition for Redevelopment Reform, 6 October 2005.

20. Interview with Tamara Alvarado, Executive Director, Movimiento de Arte Y Cultura Latino Americana, San Jose, 13 October 2005. Interview with Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder, owners, Anno Domini and producers, Phantom Galleries, San Jose, 13 October 2005.

21. Although proponents of downtown development tout the recent opening on Bunker Hill of the Disney Concert Hall and Our Lady of the Angeles Cathedral (designed by Rafael Muneo) as sparking a downtown renaissance, these flagship buildings have yet to attract this type of activity.