This chapter, uses several cases of attempted urban regeneration via cultural megaprojects to show the drawbacks and failures of the Bilbao Effect, a model of urban revitalization based on iconic architecture that became commonplace among urban managers worldwide after 1997 with the alleged success of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. This chapter discusses the case of Bilbao together with other similar efforts in urban reimaging via iconic cultural projects: Denver, Helsinki, and Abu Dhabi. Such iconic projects can be questioned in three main ways: (1) iconic architecture is no longer a hegemonic visual discourse in urban revitalization; (2) the franchise model imposed by Guggenheim means that local officials have no autonomy to make major decisions on matters ranging from exhibition calendars to budgets and investments; and (3) local cultural identities are usually neglected in a foreign global art model. The second part of the chapter, Architecture After Spectacle, suggests that architectural discourse in the West has been moving away from spectacular, iconic architecture and toward embracing new paradigms and ideas. Among these new paradigms, we see renewed interest in linking aesthetics to topography using the concepts of tectonics and rebuilding resistance over time and history as well as through the practice of places as axes of architectural production. We can also see a fuller embrace in architectural theory and practice of the complexity paradigm and the crossing of disciplinary boundaries, particularly when dealing with issues of urban ecology and sustainability.