Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened on October 21, 1959, six months after the architect's death. Commissioned under the museum's first director, Hilla Rebay, it gave the collection a distinctive home on Fifth Avenue. Wright's rounded building expands upward, reversing the familiar outline of a stepped pyramid and giving the museum an immediately recognizable silhouette.
Inside, a continuous ramp winds around the open rotunda beneath a large skylight. Wright intended visitors to take an elevator to the top and move gradually downward past the art. The route is therefore also the main room: an exhibition promenade, a place to look across the building and a sequence of changing views toward the roof.
The ramp extends roughly a quarter of a mile at a gentle incline. Its continuity gives the visit a rhythm different from a succession of separate galleries. The museum's location beside Central Park also suited Wright's interest in nature. Together, the expanding form, shared central space and movement through daylight make architecture an active part of viewing the collection.
Fallingwater, Mill Run
