RUB-A-DUB-DUB

Amsterdam Museum Shaped Like Bathtub

An overtly modern appendage to a classic building.

After several years and several millions of dollars, Amsterdam has finally been graced with the new Stedelijk Museum, and it’s shaped, drum roll please, like a bathtub. Yes, a $170 million, 130,000-square-foot bathtub now sits along the backside of the the old Stedelijk—a 19th-century red-brick building that looks positively stuffy in comparison. While the old Stedelijk was a pioneer in modern art collections as well as post-war European design, writes New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, the new bathtub design looks like Amsterdam’s desperate attempt to compete with Bilbao’s Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim. Here’s hoping Amsterdam will have more than three men in their tub.