The next time you take your students to New York City schedule a stop at the Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this museum is one of the most unique facilities in the world. Beyond the impressive displays of art and architecture lies the story of the Guggenheim Museum’s evolution, one of the most interesting events to ever transpire in New York.
The ground work for the creation of the museum began with an invitation to architect Frank Lloyd Wright from the art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim. What occurred next was a fascinating struggle, with Frank Lloyd Wright battling his client, city officials, the art world, and public opinion before he ultimately triumphed. Unfortunately, this titanic struggle took so long that both Guggenheim and Wright died before the building was completed in 1959.
The invitation to build the museum dedicated to the accomplishments of Solomon Guggenheim intrigued Mr. Wright, but he was initially disenchanted with the famous art collector’s choice for the location.
"I can think of several more desirable places in the world to build his great museum," Wright wrote in 1949, "but we will have to try New York." Wright felt that the city was overbuilt, overpopulated, and lacked architectural merit.
Fortunately, Wright went along with his client's wishes and began the project by looking at locations on 36th Street, 54th Street, and Park Avenue (all in Manhattan), as well as in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He finally settled on the present site on Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets. A key factor in his decision was it’s proximity to Central Park where nature brought a welcome relief from the noise and congestion of the city.
Nature also provided inspiration for Wright’s design. He ultimately decided on a unique approach to entering the building. Upon arrival, visitors would be taken to the top floor by elevator and then proceed downward at a leisurely pace along a gentle sloping, continuous ramp. The galleries were divided into self-contained yet interdependent sections. His design also contained an open rotunda so viewers would see several bays of work on different levels simultaneously with continuous spaces flowing freely into each other.
Mr. Wright's vision took decades to be fulfilled. A large rotunda, for example, was to be accompanied by a small rotunda and a tower and yet a third rotunda (or monitor building, as Wright called it). This smaller rotunda was intended to house apartments but eventually became offices and miscellaneous storage space. In 1965, the second floor of the building was renovated to display a growing permanent collection, and with the restoration of the museum in 1990–92, it was renamed the Thannhauser Building in honor of one of the most important donors to the museum.
From the street, the building looks somewhat like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Its appearance is in sharp contrast to the more typically boxy Manhattan buildings that surround it, a fact relished by Wright who claimed that his museum would make the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art "look like a Protestant barn."
Most criticism of the building has focused on the idea that it overshadows the artworks displayed within, and that it is particularly difficult to properly hang paintings in the shallow windowless exhibition niches which surround the central spiral. Many people, especially artists, also criticized Wright for creating a museum environment that might overpower the art inside. "On the contrary," he wrote, "it was to make the building and the painting an uninterrupted, beautiful symphony such as never existed in the World of Art before."
The story of the development of the Guggenheim Museum remains a testament to the imagination and creativity of one of the world’s greatest architects, Frank Lloyd Wright. In the end, despite the criticism the Guggenheim Museum today has become a vibrant building with art and architecture that dazzle’s the senses.
A tour of this architectural marvel is a must for students and teachers when visiting New York City.