At first glance Aberdeen and Bilbao, the financial capital of Spain’s Basque region, might seem to have little in common.
The team behind the city square being proposed for the site of Union Terrace Gardens by north-east tycoon Sir Ian Wood, however, claim it could one day be home to a Scottish Guggenheim, the museum which contributes £180million a year to the Bilbao economy.
Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (Acsef), which is consulting on the £140million square, said it would hold an international design competition to create a similar world-class gallery – if the public signal their support for the overall project.
Dave Blackwood, of Acsef, said: “In our recent discussions as part of the consultation it has become clear that people want to see internationally acclaimed architects being invited to come up with iconic, landmark designs for the City Square project.
“There is no reason why Aberdeen cannot aspire to securing a major arts brand and establishing our own Guggenheim, a gallery and museum which has led the transformation of Bilbao.”
Last night, one of Scotland’s leading authorities on architecture said Acsef should learn from other cities that had mistakenly believed a major art gallery and museum alone could turn their economic fortunes around.
Stuart MacDonald, head of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and former director of the Lighthouse, Scotland's National Centre for Architecture and Design, said: “Lots of places, including Los Angeles, New York, Dubai, even Edinburgh, said, ‘let’s have a Guggenheim’ and they all came to grief.
“What Acsef has failed to grasp is the vital difference between the Guggenheim effect and the Bilbao effect.
“The construction of the Guggenheim happened as part of a lengthy, wide-ranging programme of urban regeneration across Bilbao and the Basque region as a whole.”
Prof MacDonald said Aberdeen could benefit from its own Bilbao effect by scrapping the proposed city square and instead supporting the bid by Peacock Visual Arts to build a £13million contemporary arts centre in Union Terrace Gardens.
The Peacock scheme, designed by architects Brisac Gonzalez after an international competition in 2007, had full planning permission and 75% of its funding in place when Sir Ian Wood revealed he was prepared to put £50million of his own money into a city square on the same site.
Prof MacDonald said: “We already have plans for an iconic building by world-class architects Brisac Gonzalez, who have come up with a fantastic design for the new Peacock Arts Centre, which respects the landscape of Union Terrace Gardens and is capable of providing, at a reasonable price, an accessible, inclusive venue with the potential to become one of the best public buildings in the whole of Britain.
“If people want a world-class arts centre in Aberdeen, they should vote for the one that’s already on the table,” he added.