The Late Language of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Guggenheim Museum

in New York City

1943-1959

Frank Lloyd Wright got his long awaited opportunity to build in New York City when in 1943 the Guggenheim family asked him to design a gallery to display its collection of modern art and to house changing exhibits of various kinds. Wright’s response was to create a foreground building that had little to do with any of the neighboring structures. Originally proposed for a site in Central Park (to correspond to the Metropolitan Museum of Art), a site on the opposite east side of Fifth Avenue was acquired. It was completed about the time of Wright’s death in 1959.

The concept of the museum is that visitors arrive, travel by elevator to the top of a long ramp that spirals down to the ground level. The ramp is the principal (though not the only) exhibit space and permits an ease downward stroll past the works of art that are displayed in large bays between the structural planes that support the dome and ramps. This concept is both the bane and blessing of the museum, offering a striking experience and many curatorial headaches.

West façade on the east side of Fifth Avenue

Secondary centralized space containing the bookstore and a library as well as ancillary exhibit space.

The bookstore with its skylight