A Whopping $8 Billion Was Spent on New Cultural Buildings Last Year—and the Peak May Be Yet to Come

by admin

Aug 29, 2019

artnet

A hefty $8 billion was spent on the
construction of 148 museums and cultural institutions around the
globe in 2018, according to the third
annual Cultural Infrastructure Index, a report compiled and
published by AEA Consulting.

The overall sum spent is down from
$9.9 billion (across 107 projects) in 2017, though researchers
point out that the difference is due to the tremendous amount of
money put into the Louvre Abu Dhabi,
which juiced the 2017 figures. Otherwise, spending “represent[s] a
fairly constant picture,” according to the report, which was
released today, August 29.

“We have been looking for indicators
that suggest peak cultural infrastructure investment
has been reached, but the announced
trend line seems remarkably constant over the past three years and
the number of completed projects has increased each year over the
same period,” according to the authors.

The report finds that the median budget for announced projects
has risen slightly to $38 million, up from
$36.8 million in 2017. Meanwhile the median budget for completed
projects dipped to $34.5 million from $36.1 million.

Overall, building in Asia is up, with the value of completed
projects up to $2.1 billion from $1.5
billion, while the costs of announced projects more than tripled,
to $3.2 billion from $1 billion.

The three highest-value completed projects—the
Tai Kwun Center for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong ($482 million);
the Strait Culture and Art Centre in Fuzhou ($463 million); and
Guangxi Culture and Art Center in Nanning ($427 million)—were all
in China, as was the most expensive announced project, Valley XL in
Beijing ($2.8 billion). The latter is also the priciest on record
for a single initiative since AEA began tracking
figures.

But some of the biggest increases in investment can be found
in Australia and New Zealand, where the total
amount of money poured into finished projects has risen
to $1.3 billion from $325 million.

Europe, meanwhile, has cut back, with the costs
of finished buildings down to $1.7 billion in 2018 from $3.6
billion the year prior. Developers of announced initiatives have
also scaled down, pledging only $2.1 billion, down from $3.3
billion.

North America continues to lead with
respect to the number of buildings being constructed, with 58
completed and 51 planned. Europe came in second place again, with
44 completed and 34 announced, while Asia came in third place with
26 completed and 14 announced.

However, the authors stress that the
ranking is “significantly different by volume of investment: Asia
is in second place for completed projects and first place for
announced projects—suggesting a predictable longer-term shift in
investment patterns,” according to the authors.

AEA Consulting concedes that the
index is not exhaustive but is aimed at providing a broad snapshot
of global cultural infrastructure investment. But overall, the
report finds that museums remain by far “the most
dominant building type by number and budget,” accounting for a
little over half the total number of projects and just under half
of total investment.

The post A Whopping $8 Billion Was Spent on New Cultural
Buildings Last Year—and the Peak May Be Yet to Come appeared
first on artnet News.