When the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in Spain in 1997, Frank Gehry’s titanium-clad building became the symbol of a city reinventing itself through culture. Alongside investment in transport, the environment and its waterfront, the museum helped turn a city known largely for industry into a cultural tourism destination, a transformation that became known as the “Bilbao effect”.
Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District was already well advanced on its own path when the Canada-born American architect was announced as the designer of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2006.
Expected to open later this year, the venue will be located near an enviable cluster of cultural institutions that include the already operational Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum, TeamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.
Gehry, who died in December 2025, aged 96, will leave a mark extending beyond the museum’s walls and into live performance through Dar Al Funoon Abu Dhabi, which translates to house of the arts, another of his Saadiyat Island cultural landmarks, which is due to open in 2030.
Developed by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, the complex will host opera, ballet, theatre, orchestral concerts, musicals, festivals and cultural events.
Viewed as one of Gehry's final works, it could provide a fitting sign-off from an architect who changed how cultural institutions could look and be experienced, from museums to concert halls, through the curved forms and gleaming metal exteriors that make his structures instantly recognisable.
Here are six of Gehry’s notable cultural buildings that could offer hints of what may emerge on Saadiyat Island.
1. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Expected to open later in the year, the modern art museum in Saadiyat Island is designed as a cluster of galleries, courtyards and distinctive cones already visible on the skyline.
More than a visual feature, the large cones will contain entrances and spaces for art installations, while shaded courtyards will sit between the waterfront and air-conditioned galleries.
2. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
The permanent home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the concert hall opened in 2003 and quickly became a cultural landmark in an area of the city undergoing redevelopment at the time.
Its curved stainless steel panels rise above the street like sails, reflecting the changing Los Angeles light across the building and the surfaces below.
The hall is slightly larger than the planned main venue at Dar Al Funoon Abu Dhabi, with 2,265 seats surrounding the musicians and the orchestra placed near the centre.
3. Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago
The open-air amphitheatre opened in Chicago’s Millennium Park in 2004 with 4,000 fixed seats and space for thousands more on the lawn.
The curved stainless steel ribbons framing the stage are both a signature of Gehry’s work and a hallmark of the outdoor performance space. Speakers are placed on an overhead steel framework so listeners lounging at the back can also hear the eclectic programme, ranging from classical music to jazz.
With Dar Al Funoon also boasting an outdoor amphitheatre, it will be interesting to see how Gehry’s Abu Dhabi design develops ideas from this venue.
4. Richard B Fisher Centre for the Performing Arts, New York
Opened in 2003, the venue has two theatres serving productions of different sizes.
Its curved steel exterior is covered in thousands of stainless steel shingles that make the building glimmer from a distance.
The Fisher Centre became the home of the annual Bard Music Festival and SummerScape programme, bringing ambitious opera and performing arts productions to the college.
5. New World Centre, Miami Beach
Home to the New World Symphony, an academy that prepares young musicians for orchestral careers, the New World Centre brought Gehry on to the project through his personal connection with the orchestral academy's co-founder and artistic director, Michael Tilson Thomas.
They worked together on a building where musicians could rehearse, perform, record and test new concert formats.
The 756-seat main hall is adaptable for different programmes, with performances staged on platforms around the audience.
Some concerts are also projected on to a large wall facing SoundScape Park, allowing thousands of people to watch free “Wallcast performances” from the lawn.
6. Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin
The concert hall opened in 2017 inside the Barenboim-Said Akademie, an institution founded by conductor Daniel Barenboim in the spirit of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Barenboim established the orchestra with Palestinian academic Edward Said to bring together young Arab and Israeli musicians.
Gehry donated his design work to the project.
Seats surround the central performance area on two levels, with curved balconies bringing listeners close to the musicians below.
The hall presents chamber music, contemporary composition, jazz and programmes exploring musical traditions from the Arab world.
