Frank Gehry-designed building begins new life

To read many of the stories written about Frank Gehry these days, you'd think that one of his buildings was all that was required for a destitute city to leap into the forefront of global metropolises. But in Paris (which gets along just fine on its own merits,) the one Gehry-designed structure has sat abandoned for a decade, "a sad monument to a failed American dream."

It was planned as a new headquarters for the American Center of Paris, which was founded in 1931 and had long drawn crowds to its rambling Left Bank home as a place to discover American culture and to learn English. But the dream of a dazzling image went sour, New York Times reports.

The new center opened in June 1994 - and closed just 19 months later... Now, thanks to the French government, the building has begun a new life, this time as the headquarters of the Cinйmathиque Franзaise." A.M.