The reviews are in: After a sold-out preview party and an opening day where 1000+ people an hour streamed into the new Walker Art Center, excellent reviews have been rolling in. The New York Times writes that the Walker "has grown in size, but it has remained the institution it has always been: open, out there, street-level, uncorporate, wise. I only wish it could expand itself all the way to New York." The San Francisco Chronicle says "the measure of a museum's sucess is whether it enhances the experience of viewing art -- and does so in artistic ways. That's where the Walker excels." (See ArtsJournal for more reviews.)

The lone dissenter seems to be self-proclaimed "man of the people" and Star Tribune columnist James Lileks, who also happens to be a beloved rightwing blogger. After expressing his wish to poke out his eyes with knitting needles at the heinous eyesore that is the Walker, he writes: "Once you've seen a building as ugly as the new Walker, you can't see worse! Spare your eyes; it only gets better from here."