Shortly after Frank Gehry's state-of-the-art gallery opened in Bilbao in 1997, urban planners and commentators started to talk about the "Bilbao Effect" - the impact cultural investment could have in turning around a city's fortunes.
One wonders if in years to come they might start talking about "the Dundee effect"?
Yesterday's award of the title of Unesco City of Design to Dundee is further evidence that the city's current push for urban renewal is bearing fruit. It is also a recognition of the city's long history of design innovation. Without Dundee there would be no Beano, no Grand Theft Auto and no Aspirin (invented in the city by Dr Thomas John MacLagan in 1876).
Of course the recent announcement that the cost of Kengo Kuma's design for the V&A Museum in Dundee's Waterfront has risen by more than £30m has inevitably ruffled some feathers. But the museum is central to the city's £1bn waterfront renewal programme. And when it is completed it will reinforce the city's design credentials.
In Bilbao visitor spending in the first three years after the Guggenheim opening topped €100m, more than the cost of construction. As recently as 2012 more than one million people visited the city, more than half of them from abroad. This is the sort of impact Dundee will be hoping for. Yesterday's decision is another step along that road.
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