architect FRANK LIOYD WRIGHT

LOCATION 1071 FIFTH AVENUE , NEW YORK

DATE 1956-1959
BUILDING TYPE ART MUSEUM
CONSTUCTION SYSTEM REINFORCED CONCRETE
STYLE CONTEMPORARY STYLE

ANNUAL VISITORS 3 MILLIONS

 Solomen R.Guggenhiem museum is the first

permanent museum (rather than converted from
a private house) built in USA
 frank was commissioned to design a building to
house the Museum of Non-Objective Painting
 This building was immediately recognized as an
architectural landmark and the most important
building of Wright's late career.
This design got inspired

from inverted ziggurat
 “FORM AND FUNCTION SHOULD BE ONE,
JOINED IN A SPIRITUAL UNION” - FRANK LLOYD
architect Frank Lloyd Wright worked for
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) in his
Chicago-based architecture firm.

Sullivan is known for steel-frame

constructions, considered some of the
earliest skyscrapers. Sullivan’s famous
axiom, “form follows function,” became
the touchstone for many architects.

This means that the purpose of a

building should be the starting point for
its design. Wright extended the
teachings of his mentor by changing the
phrase to “form and function are one.”

ARCHITECT DESIGNED THIS BUILDING

WHERE FORM AND FUNCTION ARE
FOLLOWING TOGETHER
 GEOMETRIC FORMS
rectangular Triangular Oval form
square form
form form
most buildings contain interior
spaces that are rectilinear and for
wright, geomentry is the basic
building of nature

Frank Lloyd Wright thought in

curves and straight lines which is
helding symbolic significance
i.e.,triangles—for structural unity
circles __suggested infinity
spire __aspiration
spiral __organic process Nearly all of these forms can be found in the
square __integrity architecture of the Guggenheim Museum

(Look down and you find circles in the terrazzo floor beneath your feet. Look up at the
underside of the ramp and you see it punctuated by triangular lighting panels.
Wright believed that structure created beauty and geometric forms gave his work a
consistent and systematic quality.
 PLAN OF MUSEUM:
RESTORATION IN BUILDING:
In 1990, the Wright building was closed to the
public to enable the expansion and a major
interior restoration, which was overseen by the
firm.
The restoration opened the entire Wright
building to the public for the first time,
converting spaces that had been used for
storage and offices into galleries.
This museum was restored and expanded and It
contains 4,750 square meters of new and
renovated gallery space, 130 square meters of
new office space, a restored restaurant, and
retrofitted support and storage spaces.
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
The principle “form and function are one” is thoroughly visible in the plan for the
Guggenheim Museum. According to Wright’s design, visitors would enter the
building, take an elevator to the top and enjoy a continuous art-viewing
experience while descending along the spiral ramp.
 SECTION OF MUSEUM:
Frank Lloyd Wright's original
plans this Museum called for a
ten-story tower behind the
smaller rotunda, to house
galleries, offices, workrooms,
storage, and private studio
apartments.
Largely for financial reasons,
Wright's proposed tower went
unrealized.Associates Architects
revived the tower plan with its
eight-story annex, which
incorporates the foundation and
framing of a smaller annex

The tower's simple facade and grid pattern highlight

Wright's unique spiral design and serves as a
backdrop to the rising urban landscape behind the
museum.
 IMPORTANT FEATURES:
impact-echo technology, in which sound waves are sent
into the concrete and the rebound is measured in order to
locate voids within the walls
Overlapping curves, complex intersections, a long interval
of smooth planes interrupted by the double beat of the
vertical cylinders that contain the men's and women's
washrooms
From street, looks like a white ribbon ribbon,curled into a
cylindrical stack which is made up of reinforced concrete
. Colour of interior walls is not stark white, which Wright
hated, but a kind of soft ivory and having a spiral ramp
which is wider in top than bottom
. the ramp is a helix, complicated helix, being interrupted
by a bulging balcony at each revolution.
The ramp leans outward, but other elements, such as the
structural fins that transfer the weight of the ramp to the
outside walls, and rise to support the central skylight, lean
in.
Ramp described as a simple spiral The cork-screwing balustrade which is slightly tilted is a
whose diameter increases as it rises simple concrete wall with a pleasantly rounded top
 IMPORTANT FEATURES:
A monument to
modernism, the
unique architecture
of the space, with its
spiral ramp riding to
a domed
skylight,continues to
thrill visitors and
provide a unique
forum for the
presentation of
contemporary art.

Internally, the viewing gallery forms a helical spiral

from the main level up to the top of the building.
 LIGHTING:

ARTIFICIAL
LIGHTING
WHICH GIVES ARTIFICIAL
BRIGHTNESS LIGHTING IN
AT THE GALLARIES
ENTRANCE OF
MUSEUM
ARTIFICIA L LIGHT IN GALLARIES

SKYLIGHT AT THE CENTRE OF NATURAL LIGHT WILL ALLOW

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT THROUGHT WINDOWS
EMMITING FROM THE MUSEUM IS THE MAIN
SMALL LIGHTS SOURCE OF NATURAL LIGHT
 DISPLAY METHODS IN MUSEUM:
Most of the criticism of the building
has focused on the idea that it
overshadows the artworks displayed
within, and that it is difficult to
properly hang paintings in the
shallow, windowless exhibition niches
that surround the central spiral.
The walls of the niches are neither
vertical nor flat (most are gently
concave), meaning that canvasses
must be mounted raised from the
wall's surface.
The limited space within the niches
means that sculptures are generally
relegated to plinths amid the main
spiral walkway itself. Paintings are displayed along the walls of the
spiral and also in exhibition space found at
annex levels along the way.
Thank u

by
swapnika