Estimated at a total cost of 140 million euros, the museum would be expected to draw about half a million visitors a year.

The City of Helsinki and the City Council are to make a decision on construction within the next few weeks. The project will also need approval by the board of the Guggenheim Foundation. Helsinki anticipates funding the project through a combination of public, private, and corporate sources.

The total area of the museum would be approximately 12,000 square meters, with 3,920 square meters devoted to exhibition galleries, making it similar in size to Helsinki's contemporary art museum Kiasma.

Architecture and design in focus

According to the study, the new institution would help contextualize Finnish art, design, and architecture within the broader tradition of modern art while presenting Finnish audiences with artworks from around the world. A Guggenheim Helsinki would have a stronger focus on architecture and design than other Guggenheim affiliates.

“By giving artists, designers and architects access to major international networks, and by promoting new types of conversations of the arts, a Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki would offer global exposure and unprecedented opportunities to practitioners in the field of visual culture in Finland as well as in the Baltic and Nordic regions in general," Helsinki’s Deputy Mayor Tuula Haatainen said in a statement to the press.