10 Most Artistic and Unusual Museum Designs

Royal Ontario Museum Extension, Toronto

Royal Ontario Museum is a creation of communicative, stunning and unexpected architecture which signals a bold re-awakening of the civic life of the museum and the city.

The Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center

Made of concrete and matte black aluminum, the 85,000 square foot building houses temporary exhibits of contemporary art. With this building Zaha Hadid became the first woman architect to complete a major museum project in the United States.

The Akron Art Museum

A soaring glass and steel structure is strikingly juxtaposed with a late nineteenth-century brick and limestone building at the Akron Art Museum. It has an exhibition space that seems to float on air and the “Roof Cloud”, a cantilevered steel armature that extends over both the old and new buildings.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

It’s often said that the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao started the trend of making the building that houses are just as important as the art itself. The design is both fluid and geometric, with its reflective titanium-clad walls sparkling in the sun.

National Museum of Art, Osaka

Osaka’s National Museum of Art resembles a giant metal insect, crouched on the ground with its wings extending into the air. Constructed of titanium-coated steel tubes, the outer shell of the building serves as an eye-catching sculptural form that belies the museum’s contents

Museum of Middle East Modern Art in Dubai

Though it has not yet been built, the planned Museum of Middle East Modern Art in Dubaidefinitely has people talking. Naturally, opinions vary, with some lauding its fluidity while others say it looks like a giant air conditioning unit.

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

The Weisman Art Museum is among the American Midwest’s most well-known buildings. The side that faces the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is brick to blend in with the rest of the buildings, but the opposite side is a glittering abstraction of a waterfall and a fish.

The New Museum on the Bowery, NYC

The New Museum on the Bowery looks like a stack of white baker’s boxes rising into the sky, clad in aluminum mesh that disguises the windows.

The Denver Art Museum, Denver

Design reflects the nearby Rock Mountain peaks and consists of large geometric shapes clad in titanium. The dramatic expansion, which houses the Modern and Contemporary art collection as well as the collection of Architecture and Design, doubles the size of the museum and now serves as its entrance.

Burke Brise Soleil, Milwaukee Art Museum

It’s a moveable, wing-like sunscreen perched atop the museum’s vaulted Wind hover Hall. It has a wingspan comparable to that of a Boeing 747-400 – spreading 217 feet at its widest point.