News Release
BMW Guggenheim Lab Ends Successful New York City Run With More Than 300,000 Participants From Around the World
Next Stop Berlin on Nine-City, Six-Year Tour
NEW YORK, NY, October 28, 2011 – At the close of the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City on October 16, Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG, announced that the Lab attracted 54,000 visitors from 60 countries during its 2 1/2–month run, from August 3 to October 16, 2011, and that 329,000 users more than 150 countries have visited the bmwguggenheimlab.org website.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab New York was located at First Park, Houston Street at 2nd Avenue, and housed in an innovative mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow. Over 53 days, the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab—a combination think tank, public forum, and community center—offered 58 talks, 48 workshops, 28 screenings, 24 special events, 21 excursions, and nine fieldwork sessions, all of which were developed by the New York Lab Team, together with Guggenheim curators, to explore urban issues and strategies relating to the theme of Confronting Comfort.
In addition to website visitors, the BMW Guggenheim Lab received 45,000 Facebook likes and more than 40,000 YouTube views. The Lab’s interactive online game, Urbanology, has been played more than 26,000 times, and nearly 3,000 people have submitted ideas for the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s interactive logo.
“We never could have imagined the enormous level of interest and enthusiastic exchange of ideas that the BMW Guggenheim Lab and its programming generated in New York City, both on the ground and online. Even with an earthquake, a hurricane and 29 inches of rain, the Lab sparked countless conversations around the world, and even inspired a marriage proposal,” said Richard Armstrong. “We could not have achieved this success without the foresight, support and trust of the East Village community, the City of New York, and our fantastic collaborator BMW.”
“We are delighted with the tremendous response and enthusiasm that the BMW Guggenheim Lab has generated in New York,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG. “This has been a perfect start to the mobile laboratory’s six-year journey to nine megacities around the world.”
During its six-year run, which will conclude in late 2016, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to nine cities in three successive cycles, each with its own distinct theme and architectural structure, to help raise awareness of important urban challenges and yield sustainable benefits for cities around the world. Berlin is the next stop for the Lab, in late spring 2012, to be followed by Mumbai in late 2012.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is curated by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, and Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Architecture.
About the BMW Guggenheim Lab Online
The BMW Guggenheim Lab website (bmwguggenheimlab.org), blog (blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org), and online communities further extend the opportunity to participate in this multidisciplinary urban experiment worldwide. Visitors are invited to become members of the BMW Guggenheim Lab's dedicated social communities at:
twitter.com/bmwgugglab and #BGLab
facebook.com/bmwguggenheimlab
youtube.com/bmwguggenheimlab
flickr.com/bmwguggenheimlab
foursquare.com/bmwgugglab
Contacts
For the complete press materials, go to bmwguggenheimlab.org/presskits
For publicity images and video, go to bmwguggenheimlab.org/pressimages
User ID = photoservice, Password = presspass
Tina Vaz/Betsy Ennis
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
212 423 3840
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Melissa Parsoff
Ruder Finn
212 593 5889
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thomas Girst
BMW Group
(49) 89 382 20067
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
October 28, 2011
#1209/BGL8