The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is about to reopen after a decade-lasting restoration/renovation that took longer than its original construction and cost about 300 times as much. Several news sites, including the Dutch NRC and the NY Times posted images of the museum's new looks, which have been largely welcomed by both public and pundits. The Telegraph notes the reopening of the always embattled bicycle tunnel that now bridges the opened-up museum atrium.

This reception is in contrast with that after renovations of two other museums on Amsterdam's Museumplein*. Of those museums, the Stedelijk recently completed its 8-year (!) $170 million makeover, of which particularly the new Museumplein-facing 'bathtub' entrance was received with mixed feelings, to say the least.

Mixed feelings also apply to the proposed Kurokawa-designed entrance of the Van Gogh Museum, which is supposed to better integrate the exhibition wing (also by Kurokawa, and considered 'horrific' by NYT's Michael Kimmelman) with the main building. Meanwhile, the van Gogh itself will reopen May 1 after a minor remodeling.

That said, whatever their opinion on the appearance of these museums may be, everyone agrees that it's great to have them finally open again.

*) Note that the Google Maps images are not up to date, and that the van Gogh Museum is mislabeled as 'Rabobank'. confused


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