“The museum can become a window for all people in and outside of our county to learn more about the past and present of Yilan,” Yilan County Deputy Magistrate Wu Tze-cheng said during the news conference.
The museum is visually stunning, officials noted. They pointed out that Kris Yao and Artech Inc., the museum’s architects, recently received the prestigious Far Eastern Architectural Design Award for their design.
“The building is modeled on the shape of the cuesta rocks often found along the northeastern coast of Taiwan, which have a gentle slope on one side and a steep one on the other,” museum spokesperson Huang Yi-fen said. “It also integrates itself very nicely into its wetland surroundings.”
Though its official opening date is not until Oct. 16, the museum, which took 18 years to complete, has already received 600,000 visitors since its soft opening in May, Huang added.
Huang Kuang-nan, president of National Taiwan University of Arts, said the museum has the potential of becoming an internationally recognized center.
The Lanyang Museum is the first public museum in Yilan, a county in northeastern Taiwan that directly faces the Pacific Ocean. (HZW)