Unveiled last week by Guggenheim director Thomas Krens under the Venetian's ornate, gold-encrusted dome, the two gallery designs are radically different in scale and function. It will exhibit works culled from both collections. At 7,660 square feet, it will flank the main entry of the hotel along the Las Vegas Strip. In Koolhaas' design, the Venetian complex is conceived as a portal connecting high entertainment and high art. The galleries will fit snugly into their surroundings, but their hard-edged, industrial aesthetic will present an aggressive contrast to the Venetian's lavish decor.
Few architects are better prepared to tackle the problem.
It is a notion that has meaning beyond the profession. That cool pragmatism has brought him a string of successes. He is now designing three stores for the chic Prada fashion house in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has won a slew of major competitions, including those for the design of the Seattle Public Library, a student center for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and a concert hall in Porto, Portugal. But in many ways, the Las Vegas project is riskier than those earlier commissions.