New York is simply one of my favorite destinations.

There is so much to say about New York, so much to see, 24 hours are definitely not enough to do everything and visit all the great architecture this city as. This time, I decided to visit the Guggenheim Museum.

The starting point was the 7th avenue and I decided to walk all the way to Guggenheim. It took me around 45min and on the way I could breathe and feel a little bit more this great city, atmosphere and contrasts. Even though it was a bit cold, sun was shining and the central park had beautiful contrasts.

I could already glimpse this emblematic building from a distance. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as per original name (founder’s name) goes back to a 20th century architecture in 1959. I was really happy to finally visit this great building that, so far, I was only able to see in my university books.

The foundation firstly opened in 1939 and had the purpose to display Non-Objective art available by the early modernists. After years of accumulating a large collection, was urge the need of a permanent building for the museum. Frank Lloyd Wright was the chosen architect invited to design the structure to display the collection.

The director at the time Hilla Rebay wanted to create the “Temple of the spirit”, a monument that would help and make it easier to have a new way of looking at the modern art pieces in the collection. Was expected by Guggenheim’s that the building would be different from any other museum in the world.

With the above in mind Wright had the challenge to experiment his organic style architecture in an urban environment. He created four different sketches for the initial design. Wright’s disappointment with the place of the future museum was not hidden. For him the city had too much construction, population and remarkable architecture was missing at that time. Wright was death 6 months before the inauguration on the 21st of October 1959.

As it happens often this was another project that had created controversial opinions but today, no one can deny the elegance, the lightness (even being built in a heavy material like concrete) and timelessness this building as.

Is difficult to imagine that Wright first proposed red marble for the facade stating that “red is the color of creation”, he had a point here but, in my opinion, the white is just perfect, light and clean.

The moment I entered the museum I arrived at the main area, round in shape which is the heart of the building. This area gives guidance to a spiral that ends in a natural light dome. Wright conceived the space in a way that you don’t have to repeat your steps, you simply take the elevator to the top level and start descending through the spiral shaped ramp until you arrive back at the entrance. While descending its possible to have an indirect overview of the whole exhibition that allows your curiosity to build up.

The whole building is already a piece of art which was the starting point for me to get inspired and enjoy the rest of the exhibition.

It is possible to observe the organic and geometric shapes. The light shaped architecture of the building contrasts with the concrete which is a heavy construction material. Is possible to discover this museum and it's art in different ways, each one of us would find their own and that’s the most amazing part of creating architecture.

If you are a curious, when I was doing some research I found an interesting article published by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum facebook page in honor of the 50th Anniversary stating 50 Guggenheim interesting Facts and I decided to share it here:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum/50-guggenheim-facts/126415060704502/

If you visit New York and if you love art and architecture this is definitely a “must to see”.

Ana Backhaus