On October 16, at the close of the initial BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City, 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 received 54,000 visitors from 60 countries during its 2 ½ month run from August 3 to October 16, 2011, and that 329,000 users from 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. The site was housed in an innovative mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow. Over 53 days, the Guggenheim Lab – a combination think tank, public forum, and community center – offered talks, workshops, screenings, special events, tours, and fieldwork sessions. The events were developed by the New York Lab Team along with Guggenheim curators to explore urban issues and strategies relating to the theme of Confronting Comfort.
“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.”
The BMW Guggenheim Lab received 45,000 Facebook likes and over 40,000 YouTube views. The Lab’s interactive online game, Urbanology, has been played more than 26,000 times, and nearly 3,000 people submitted ideas for the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s interactive logo.
“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 mega cities around the world.”
During its six-year run, which will conclude in late 2016, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to nine cities, each with its own theme and architecture, with the goal of helping raise awareness of important urban challenges and yield sustainable benefits for cities around the world. Berlin will host the Lab in late spring 2012, followed by Mumbai in late 2012.
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