55 Years Ago Tuesday: Guggenheim Museum Officially Opens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Fifty-five years ago Tuesday, thousands of people lined up along Fifth Avenue at 89th Street to get the first glimpse into the now-iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Frank Lloyd Wright was first commissioned in 1943 to design the building for what was then known as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting. It took 16 years for the museum to be completed, due in part to changes in Wright's own design, the higher cost of building materials after World War II, and the 1949 death of museum benefactor Solomon R. Guggenheim, according to the museum.
Construction of the museum finally began in 1956, and the museum finally opened on Oct. 21, 1959 – more than six months after Wright's death.
The design, featuring a spiral ramp and a domed skylight in the interior, drew criticism and admiration. But it came to be known as one of the most iconic buildings of Wright's latter career.
"Wright's building made it socially and culturally acceptable for an architect to design a highly expressive, intensely personal museum. In this sense almost every museum of our time is a child of the Guggenheim," architecture critic Paul Goldberger said in a quote referenced by the museum.
Wright's original plan for the Guggenheim also called for a 10-story tower behind the main building to house galleries, offices, studio apartments and other facilities, according to the museum. The tower was never built, but an eight-story annex was later constructed, according to the museum.
The main Wright building also underwent a full restoration between 1990 and 1992, and also underwent an exterior restoration between 2005 and 2008.
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