The Akron Art Museum is opening its $35 million expansion by Austrian architect Wolf D. Prix — a structure boasting metal and mesh wings jutting out at severe angles over a glass-and-aluminum core. The new building more than triples the size of the institution, imparting a decidedly futuristic bent to the brick design of the 1889 original. Museum officials are apparently hoping that the work of Prix's firm, Coop Himmelb(l)au, with its commitment to innovation and off-kilter aesthetics, will result in a "Bilbao effect" for Akron, emulating the boom enjoyed by the industrial Spanish city following the debut of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim.