After much controversy over its cost - the better part of £500 million (about $925 million at the time) - and delays in its construction, the new Scottish Parliament opened in autumn 2004. Designed by the late Barcelona-based architect Enric Miralles, it is a remarkable bit of modern design and perhaps worth the expense and overruns. The abstract motif repeated on the facade facing the Canongate was apparently inspired by Raeburn's painting Rev. Walker skating on a Duddingston Loch, which hangs in the National Gallery of Art. The public can visit for free and get tickets to seats in the main debating chamber or take a guided tour, which goes into the bowels of Scottish political life.