The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which has just been inaugurated to a design by Thomas Phifer and Partners, is a handsome, refined new building; it is also a case study of the wide, international interest in the country's architecture, as well as a scheme that exemplifies through its story, the difficult post-war history of its city.
In 1998, right after the undisputed success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Frank Gehry gave an interview to the Polish press in which he expressed his desire to design a new museum in Warsaw – even for free. Gehry's family came from Poland, so it was his dream to build a significant building in the country. He later designed the Camerimage Film Center in Łódź and the Academy of Music in Kraków, but neither was built.
