The well-worn by history Stedelijk Museum has made a controversial expansion with a new architecturally unique "bath tub" building in Amsterdam. The tub building clashes with much of the surrounding architecture which emphasizes practical modern industrial styles.

AMSTERDAM — Offhand I can’t recall seeing a more ridiculous looking building than the new Stedelijk Museum, which recently opened here. Shaped like a bathtub, of all things, it arrives years behind schedule at the tail end of the money-fueled, headline-hungry, erratically ingenious era of indulgent museum design that began to peter out with the global economy. Compared with no-frills, cost-effective, almost penitential, post-meltdown designs like Herzog & de Meuron’s stylish Parrish Art Museum in the Hamptons, it’s a throwback.

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