We take the recent passing of Frank Gehry (Dec 5, 2025 @ age 96) as an invitation to visit the north of España and the city of Bilbao (pop 351,124 in 2025). This is the País Vasco (Basque), an autonomous region on the Mar Cantábrico, the southern extent of the Golfo de Vizcaya.
Extensively bombed during the Civil War, Bilbao's city center, the Abando, forms a regular grid, with the Plaza Federico Moyúa at its heart, and diagonal arterials making the Plaza an eight-way rotary. Our hotel happens to be on one of the diagonals, which turns out to be oddly disorienting. The Gran Vía runs roughly east-west, and the Alameda de Recalde runs north – the airport shuttle brings us in from the Túnel de Archanda-La Salve (past the Museo) and onto the Alameda.
The grid and diagonal plan results in numerous six-way intersections and wedge-shaped buildings with narrow-angled facades, including the Iglesia de San José de la Montaña (early 20th century). The Iglesia faces south (rather than the traditional west), and its tower marks the entry to the northern-most segment of the Calle Iparraguierre, which aligns with the Museo Guggenheim (Gehry, 1992-97).
The Museo itself is guarded by the "Puppy" (Jeff Koons, 1992), a two-story topiary arrangement in the shape of a Westie. The building's titanium sheets wear warm patina (photos show a silvery shine) but are offset by a deep blue office block behind the Puppy which seems to house the Museo's administrative functions, joined to the glass and titanium with natural stone surfaces; the seams of the stone tiles are staggered to mimic the sheetmetal.
We descend from the upper plaza to the Parque República de Abando, a greenway along the Río Nervión. The Pasarela Pedro Arrupe (2003) is a pedestrian bridge that connects the Parque to the north bank, and from the central span we find excellent views of the Museo and the Puente de La Salve (Juan Batanero, 1972). The Puente includes the "Arcos Rojos" (2006) by Daniel Buren which contrasts well with the colors and forms of the Guggenheim.
We head back to town, past the Torre Iberdrola (César Pelli, 2007-11 – Pelli passed in 2019 @ 92) and through the Plaza Euskadi. On the other side of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (currently a construction site due to an expansion by Norman Foster) is the Plaza Eduardo Chillida, and at the center of the Plaza is the "Elogio del Hierro III" (Eduardo Chillida, 1991 – Chillida passed in 2002 @ 78).
We consider all the architects and artist that formed the generation just ahead of ours as we went through art school – they were rising stars then, their work in all the magazines or pinned up in our studios. Bilbao is their experiment: contemporary art and architecture coming together to remake and renew a city moving from an industrial to a service economy.
After dinner, we make one final crossing through the Plaza Federico Moyúa, enjoying the streetlights and flowerbeds of Bilbao's early spring.
