Newcastle should draw inspiration from the Spanish city of Bilbao for the redevelopment of Queens Wharf, according to a letter writer to the Newcastle Herald. The writer supports calls from architect Barney Collins and academic Gionni di Gravio to 'think big' about the project, noting that Newcastle has often settled for less.
Bilbao, a port city similar in size to Newcastle, opened the Guggenheim Museum in 1997 on a disused industrial waterfront. Designed by Frank Gehry, the museum attracted millions of visitors and sparked an economic revival. While Queens Wharf may be too small or historically sensitive for such an extravagant project, the writer argues that similar doubts likely existed in Bilbao before the museum was built.
The letter suggests that federal and state funding should be sought for a transformative project, even if it is not a museum. It points out that the NSW government found $836 million for a new fish market in Sydney, so a couple of hundred million for Newcastle should be feasible.
