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Designing the Tate Modern

By Jackie Craven, About.com

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Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern

Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London

Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London

Photo (cc) Flickr Member Heather Kennedy
Left intact, the 500 foot Turbine Hall became a dramatic entrance for the Tate Modern museum. The industrial flavor of the building is reflected in the taupe walls and black steel girders. A new glass ceiling floods the austere space with natural light, creating an ideal environment for viewing art.

"It's a space you never could ever have achieved with a new building," says Rowan Moore, an architecture critic and author of Building the Tate Modern (compare prices). "For one thing they'd never get the money for it, but even if they did it would seem like a bombastic gesture because there's all this empty space here."

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