A pet project of Tourism Secretary, businessman and modern art collector Aurelio Lopez Rocha, the Barranca Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will cost around 30 to 35 million dollars.
Construction workers have fenced off the plot of land, felled 182 trees in the Parque Mirador and removed a local soccer pitch to make way for the museum. The site was originally due to house a Guggenheim art museum franchise, but the plans fell through in 2010.
The sleek building will be 11,300 cubic meters in size. It was designed by renowned architects Herzog & De Meuron, who were behind London’s Tate Modern art museum and the Olympic Stadium in Beijing.The museum will have an emphasis on art from Mexico and Latin America. Lopez Rocha hopes it will boost local tourism and encourage urban regeneration in the north of the city.
Although these recent development are encouraging, many Tapatios will recall that Lopez Rocha has previously headed several failed building projects, most notably a tower at the far end of Plaza del Sol. The abandoned work site is one of western Guadalajara’s worst eyesores.