View Full Version : [NYC] Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum- Frank Lloyd Wright


?eter
19-01-2006, 10:31
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum- Frank Lloyd Wright (1959)

1071 5th Ave, New York, NY

Website: www.guggenheim.org (http://www.guggenheim.org/new_york_index.shtml)

Directions:
Take the 4,5 or 6 train to 86th street. Walk west towards Central Park. Turn right on 5th Avenue and head north for 2 blocks. Directions courtesy New York on Tap (http://www.newyorkontap.com/subways.asp) subway/map search.

Best value entrance is with a Citypass (http://citypass.com/city/ny.html) - $53 gets entrance to 6 different attractions including the Guggenheim- and gets you into the member's queue- saves quite a bit of time and improves your chances of getting in early enough to take good photos of the foyer.


All photographs taken with Canon A80

?eter
19-01-2006, 10:32
Interior shot, looking upwards (which is what everyone does when they walk in)

?eter
19-01-2006, 10:36
Interior Panorama stitched with Canon photostitch (including a fellow architect)

?eter
19-01-2006, 10:40
Finally, the Google Earth KMZ...

wizum
21-01-2006, 21:46
?eter... is that all ya got? Hoping to see some more images... though the ones you have posted here are very nice...

?eter
25-01-2006, 18:11
Those are just about all the photos I got- the spiral interior is not particularly photogenic, but I managed to get 2 other decent photos:

One is FLlW's signature, next to the front door of the building:

?eter
25-01-2006, 18:12
And a brass water fountain.

That's all. :(

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 21:16
"I need a fighter, a lover of space, an agitator, a tester and a wise man. . . . I want a temple of spirit, a monument! "
—Hilla Rebay to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1943

In June 1943, Frank Lloyd Wright received a letter from Hilla Rebay, the art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, asking the architect to design a new building to house Guggenheim's four-year-old Museum of Non-Objective Painting. The project evolved into a complex struggle pitting the architect against his clients, city officials, the art world, and public opinion. Both Guggenheim and Wright would die before the building's 1959 completion. The resultant achievement, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, testifies not only to Wright's architectural genius, but to the adventurous spirit that characterized its founders.

Wright made no secret of his disenchantment with Guggenheim's choice of New York for his museum: "I can think of several more desirable places in the world to build his great museum," Wright wrote in 1949 to Arthur Holden, "but we will have to try New York." To Wright, the city was overbuilt, overpopulated, and lacked architectural merit.


================
These are photos from a 72 hour solo adventure in New York in August of 2004. I've visited the city 4 times now, for no reason other than to escape Los Angeles and see the city. It was during this visit to the museum that was a turning point for my career goals. The entire city inspired me to get into architecture, even moreso than all the dreaming and reading of it growing up.

I didn't have the chance to go past the lobby, since I was on such a tight budget staying in a hostel and eating streetdogs on this trip. So I browsed the bookstore and gift shop for quite some time.. But I went back outside to stare at the building some more. The facade reminds me of a clay wheel, the building spiraling up in the architect's mind. I love the purity of the white inside and out. The noise on the street didn't compliment it much, but from the inside you could feel the heart of this building much better.


===============

8th & 89th, 1071 5th Avenue, New York, 10128

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 21:17
inside the lobby

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 21:17
lobby

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 21:18
info on the building:
http://www.guggenheim.org/the_building.html

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 22:00
Google Earth

?eter
15-02-2007, 23:00
...and my number one tip for this building: if you want to jump to the front of the queue, get a citypass (http://www.citypass.com/) (which also gets you into MoMA, on a boat cruise, up the Empire State building, into the Natural History museum and a couple other places at what works out as half price) so that you can take photos of an (almost) empty museum like this: (with a serious feeling of deja vu- I know I've posted this photo here-can my photos of this building (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1846) be merged into this thread?)

shikatoi
15-02-2007, 23:03
right, the city pass is a great way to go! From here you can also jump across the street and visit parts of Central Park. It's an escape from the busseling city to lie in the grass and bask in the sun on a weekday afternoon.

trogers
15-02-2007, 23:55
threads merged. shikatoi, please do a search before creating new threads.

shikatoi
16-02-2007, 00:05
gotcha, sorry tr!

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:27
Here are some more pictures I took in February 2004:
Approaching from South

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:30
Looking at the entrance

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:31
Entrance, opposite view

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:33
View from north

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:36
Connection to Gwathmey Siegel extension...

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:38
Another view of the extension

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:40
Extension behind Wright's masterpiece

am_i_wry
16-02-2007, 00:40
Does NY have any sort of planning controls? Why was that extension allowed? I am no huge fan of the original but its important and iconic. The extension is crude, crass and utterly utterly vile!

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:46
The beautiful contrast between the white mass and the dark cuts

InArch
16-02-2007, 00:48
All photographs taken with Canon A80

When were these photos taken (1.19.06)?
As of August 2006 the building was under a major exterior renovation that turned the Guggenheim into an archaeological site, (pictures to follow).

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:51
Dome

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:53
Spiral ramp (closed when I was there)

vOid
16-02-2007, 00:54
... I also took a pic of Wright's "signature"...

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:02
01 - building under wrap as restoration crews uncover layers of stucco and paint

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:02
02 - concrete exposed as the day it was built

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:03
03

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:04
04

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:05
05 - cracking and decay

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:06
06

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:07
07

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:07
08 - the best skylight

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:08
09 - ramps 101

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:08
10 - Zaha Hadid?

InArch
16-02-2007, 01:14
Connection to Gwathmey Siegel extension...


Does anyone have photos before the extension? I must have them somewhere, but will need to scan in the negatives. This building has gone through several updates, additions and renovation over the years, it would be nice to have images of all the key make-overs.

She is high maintenance!

SWANK-E
16-02-2007, 02:11
i thought the argument was that FLW actually had a tall rectalinear tower as part of the original concept anyway

InArch
16-02-2007, 03:43
i thought the argument was that FLW actually had a tall rectilinear tower as part of the original concept anyway

No, I don't think that was the case. Originally Wright designed the museum to be in sharp contrast to the linear wall of buildings facing the park. The new addition only counteracts Wrights design philosophy and attachment to nature. Obviously the new addition was a needed enhancement to the existing program, and perhaps because of Wright's visionary concept, the museum still has not lost any dominance on site.

My attachment to Wright's work is based on having worked and studied with one of his direct apprentices. It is something I hold close to my work.

franjayo
16-02-2007, 04:00
March 2005