This crumpled-metal building is the Museum of Pop Culture, which Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen commissioned Frank Gehry to design and opened in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Allen, a lifelong rock obsessive who grew up on Jimi Hendrix records in Seattle's Central District, spent $240 million building a museum dedicated to the music he loved. Gehry designed the building by deconstructing three electric guitars and using their curves to generate the exterior forms — a structure that looks different from every angle, reflecting the sky in panels of silver, gold, and purple.
Inside, the Hendrix collection covers the Seattle native born in 1942 who became arguably the greatest electric guitarist in history. The grunge exhibit chronicles Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains — four bands from this city who collectively redefined rock music. A Science Fiction museum, horror exhibit, and hip-hop archive round out a museum that takes popular culture as seriously as any institution takes painting.
The building is an argument that the music kids make in garages matters.