Urban design guru praises 'Bilbao effect' to revamp ailing cities

Could a project similar to Bilbao's Guggenheim museum have a similar effect on Aberdeen, a city in the northern part of Scotland with a population of 200.000 people? Charles Landry, an international expert on revamping cities, thinks so.

In an article published on the Evening Express, the design guru praises the winning design for the City Garden Project and thinks that the project, which targets to transform the Union Terrace gardens into a new city centre, could have the same impact on Aberdeen as the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

"The design is amazing. Aberdeen is really very lucky ... it could create a Bilbao effect", Mr Landry told the Evening Express.

Aberdeen City Council believes construction could be finished by 2016.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by architect Frank Gehry, was opened in 1997 and saw visitor numbers go from less than 100,000 to almost one million in 2011.

The museum was the signature architectural project of a new time that managed to turn a decaying port into a destination. Tourists were closely followed by banks, businesses and law firms, transforming Bilbao into the prosperous city we now know, and the financial hub of the Basque Country.