The jury that’s been assembled to judge bids in an architectural design for Hungary’s new National Gallery has invited heavy hitters of international fame. These include Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Mecanoo, Nieto Sobejano, Renzo Piano, Sanaa and Snøhetta. The first competition did not emerge with a bid considered satisfactory. The results of the current batch of invitations to tender are expected to produce a winner by April 2015. The jury is being led by Lázló Baán, who is the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, an institutions that sits on Budapest’s Heroes’ Square near the part where the new gallery is to be built. Other jury members are Wim Pijbes, the director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and Henri Loyrette, the former director of the Louvre in Paris. Estimated to cost USD 300m, the project is being backed by Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán.
