Rising above the ancient Roman arena in Arles, the high winding high, created by Frank Gehry, shimmers with the sun, the latest futuristic addition to this southern French city, known for its world heritage sites.
The tower, which opens to the public on Saturday, is the flagship of a new “creative town” conceived by the Swiss Arts Foundation Luma, which wants to give artists space for creativity, collaboration and demonstration of their work.
Gary, a 92-year-old man behind the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, wrapped 11,000 stainless steel panels around his tower over a huge round glass base.
It will house contemporary art exhibitions, a library and offices, and the Luma Arles campus will generally host conferences and live performances.
From afar, the structure reflects the changing lights of this city, which inspired Van Gogh, capturing the whiteness of the nearby limestone mountain range of the Alps, which glows with a bright orange light in the west.
Mustafa Buhayati, head of Luma Arles, says the city is not used to erecting monuments; its ancient Roman arena and theater have long attracted crowds.
Luma Arles is located in a huge former industrial zone.
Maya Hoffmann, a Swiss philanthropist who set up the foundation, says it took seven years to build the site and many more years to design.
In addition to the tower, Luma Arles also has exhibition and concert halls in former industrial buildings, a phosphorescent skate park created by South Korean artist Ku Chon A., and a large public park designed by Belgian landscape architect Bass Smets.
Wealthy great-granddaughter of the founder of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, Hoffmann for many years was involved in the world of modern art, like her grandmother.
A documentary filmmaker and art collector, she owns photographs of Annie Leibovitz and Diane Airbus and says she hung out with Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York.
The stated purpose of its foundation is to promote artists and their works with a special interest in environmental issues, human rights, education and culture.
She refuses to answer the question of how much the project in Arles costs.
But as to why she chose a city of 53,000, Hoffmann replies, “I didn’t choose Arles, Arles chose me.”
She moved here as a child when her father, Luke Hoffmann, co-founder of WWF, created a biodiversity reserve in the Camargue, a region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhone Delta known for its pink flamingos.
The tower reflects this, with the salt of the Camargue, which is used as a panel for frescoes, and algae delta as a dye for fabric.
Hoffmann says she wants her project to attract more visitors to the city in the winter, where nearly a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line.
About 190 people will work on the Luma project over the summer, Bukhayati said, adding that Hoffman had created an “ecosystem for creativity.”