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Tate Modern

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Tate Modern

What do you do when you’ve run out of room to show off your priceless collection of modern art? Well, you could do what Tate did in 1994 and snap up a prime piece of central London real estate – in this case an iconic but crumbling former power station commission Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, and set to work on a £134m rebuild and restoration. To pull off the delicate and complex construction process in time for the millennium, main contractor Carillion innovated by splitting the building work into distinct packages, each to be carried out by specialist subcontractors.

“The opening of Tate Modern is a watershed in the cultural life of this country” – Adrian Searle, art critic

Tate Modern is the 3rd most-visited art gallery in the world

The gallery is thought to be worth £100m per year to the UK economy

In its first year, Tate Modern drew 2x as many visitors as expected