The City of Las Vegas has revealed the plans for its newest art project. The Las Vegas Museum of Art is scheduled to open in 2028 and will be designed by award-winning Burkinabè architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.
The City Council has approved the initial plans for the 90,000-square-foot (8,350 square meters) Las Vegas Museum of Art. The museum will be constructed on a parking lot in the Symphony Park area of Downtown Las Vegas, a neighbourhood that the city has been developing increasingly over the past few years. The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and the Discovery Children’s Museum are just some of the other cultural hotspots in the area.
As the approval was received, the City of Las Vegas also unveiled the first rendering of the design. No other than Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Diébédo Francis Kéré will be in charge of the museum. According to Kéré, both Las Vegas and the surrounding desert of Nevada inspired him while drawing the building, translating into a terracotta-coloured facade with much texture and see-through details. The building is tapered towards the lower levels, where the lobby and entrance area will be situated.
“Our design blends the beauty of the desert environment with local building principles and the passion and collaborative spirit of the Las Vegas Museum of Art to create a space where dreams come to life,” said Kéré. “It is a tremendous honour, and a highlight of my professional journey, to create a space that will bring art and joy to the residents who call Las Vegas home.”
Las Vegas Museum of Art is the result of a successful collaboration between Elaine Wynn, cofounder of the Mirage and Wynn Resorts, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. While Wynn took care of the financials needed for the founding of the new museum, the LACMA will lend art and expertise to the newcomer in the cultural scene.
“My days are numbered. I thought, what’s my final gift? I want to leave an imprint other than my name on a hotel casino”, Wynn told the New York Times. “For a community like Las Vegas to rightfully assume its place of prominence in the global cities of the world, it must have cultural grounding. Creating an art museum as an intentional act by a public/private partnership demonstrates our commitment to do this.”
