The new expansion of the Tate Gallery will be finished in 2012

“Expand or die”. This is the motto that every great Museum and Art gallery in the Western world seems to have been following for the last years. Take a look at the Louvre, with its famous new pyramid by I. M. Pei, the London National Gallery and its controversial Sainsbury Wing by Robert Venturi, or the Prado Museum with the recent halls by Rafael Moneo. The latest example is the Tate Gallery of London, one of the best Modern and Contemporary Art Museums of the world, which will have its new and spectacular extension finished in 2012, coinciding with the Olympic Games that will take place in the UK capital.

The new glass and metal body will carry the prestigious signature of architects Herzog and de Meuron, which is a guarantee of spectacularity and -of course- glamour and fame. Let’s see if the building is really finished in its stipulated period -which is quite possible- and if the exorbitant budget of €315million is not drastically surpassed -which is also quite possible, as in many recent examples of entertainment architecture