The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright Essay

Introduction

Modern architecture is probably one of the most popular and captivating periods that are characterized by attention to space, simplification of built forms, and intelligibility of ornaments in the building structures. The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright is considered one of the most noticeable architectural works, a cultural centre, and a heart of museum international networks. There is a number of peculiarities of this building because it unites some ideas of Impressionism, Modernism, and even contemporary art. However, modern features are better developed and properly uses by Wright to create this museum. This well-known building is located in New York, United States. The citizens of the Upper East Side of Manhattan get a chance to enjoy its beauty and magnificence day by day (Figure 1). Wright made a wonderful attempt to unite many modern ideas and create the building that corresponds to current demands, people’s interests, and future expectations. In 1959, after the death of its designer, the Guggenheim Museum opened its doors to the public. People accepted this new building in many different ways: it was difficult to realize how these new ideas and approaches may improve their lives and influence their perception of the world. Numerous agreements took place, however, within a short period of time, the Guggenheim Museum became of the most recognizable places in Manhattan. Wright’s attempts and theories become clear for people of different age and with different tastes. To comprehend the essence and the functions of this building, it is not enough to visit it once and observe its design. It is more important to evaluate the chosen theories and concepts, expectations and demands of the architect, and try to feel what make this building real and significant. The Guggenheim Museum becomes a historical building that promoted the development of a new style with new typological characteristics and forms, attracted more tourists from the whole world, and proved that Wright’s imagination deserved recognition and respect.

Discussion

Design theories and concepts

Architecture is considered to be one of the most thoughtful and captivating arts that attract attention of many people due to its possibility to evaluate space and form and create unbelievable works which gain recognition within a short period of time. This type of art is characterized by a theoretical framework that aims at supporting a complex nature of design. Design theory may be defined as a collective appellation of knowledge that is used to promote the development of designs for different products. Because of constant change of ideas and tastes, the idea of design theory cannot be called as a constant one. Considerable changes and improvements take place in this theory in order to evaluate the already achieved results, compare them to the demands of the world, and promote another style to the audience.

So, what are the concepts of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work the Guggenheim Museum? Among the varieties of design theories and concepts, it is necessary to admit that this building represents a unique collection of both Impressionism and Modernism. 1959 was the year of the opening of Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York; so, it is possible to believe that modernist design theory is mostly applied to the Guggenheim Museum. Architectural modernism was developing at the beginning of the 20^th century. The main purpose of the most modernists was to create buildings which unite two main concepts, space and structure. “Since Wright was well versed in the Bible as the son of a Unitarian minister, he internalized the biblical message of freeing humanity from enslavement in closed spaces and expressed this freedom in this architectural design” (Alexenberg 2006, p.10). One of the most important and considerable concepts of the Guggenheim Museum is the attention to space and freedom which are so obligatory for people. The concept of freedom may be perfectly explained in the Figure 2. Wright made an attempt to avoid some rough edges. Walls of the building are connected to the roof in the form of hairpin beams that are able to underline the importance of skylight and the possibility to enjoy the light and that necessary freedom. This curving form of the walls is unique indeed, and the architect demonstrates a chance to reach the heights by means of the offered building.

The design theory of architecture involves numerous architectural standards and norms that aim at improvement of the results and the quality of the building. The chosen modernist design theory is justified by the properly chosen concepts and approaches. Its interior form has one of the most amazing possibilities to give the necessary shape to its exterior form. “Wright initially favoured a horizontal, spreading building on a hilltop site overlooking the Hudson River” (Weston 2004, p. 88). Much attention is still paid to space and its features because Wright was known by his desire to enrich human lives by means of the transformational power of human imagination and place. The concept of the building also reflects the idea to unite culture, technological progress, and environment. To create the Guggenheim Museum, Wright tried to single out each style and develop a new sense in architecture that can truly depict his intentions and position. He wanted to united all the above-mentioned issues in order to demonstrate his respect to every single item: American culture and desire to gain recognition in the world made him introduce the Guggenheim Museum in New York and represent the ways of how people can reach the sky; created environment demonstrated the desire to get more space within the already existed conditions; and unbelievable curving walls introduced the idea of technological progress that allowed to depart from everyday banalities. In general, to provide people with some kind of help and ideas to improve their lives and attitudes to this world, “Wright offered solutions in the form of architecture, showing how to live in harmony with the environment, not out of fear… but out of a deeply-rooted love for natural beauty” (Pfeiffer 2004, p. 12).

Built form and typological characteristics of the Guggenheim Museum

Built form is one of the architectural forms that have to evaluate how the building looks like, why it looks in this particular way, what sizes are better to use, and what place should it take in the city. The example of the Guggenheim Museum demonstrates how powerful and appropriate the choice of each element can be. Though, this building is large in its literal size its shape and surface focused on reducing the building scale and its outside form. Its spiral form of the building has a long history; the decision to choose this form made it possible to use the available place and combine all spatial and structural ideas, offered by the architect. Due to its concrete (sprayed and poured) material, the built form looks attractive and does not differ too much from the buildings next to the Guggenheim Museum. Inside the museum, it was decided to use slight curving ramps that provide space that may be occupied by numerous artworks. Wright himself defined his Guggenheim Museum as:

“one great space on a single continuous floor. The eye encounters no abrupt change, but is gently led and treated as if at the edge of a shore watching an unbreaking wave…one floor flowing into another instead of the usual superimposition of stratified layers. The whole is cast in concrete, more an eggshell in form than a crisscross brick structure.” (Wright, n.d.)

Its built form has many positive characteristics and makes almost each person admire the building and its amenities. Wright focused on each detail from choosing material to create this museum till the idea to use curving form and attract the light. Evaluating the form of the Guggenheim Museum, it is possible to notice that is full of space that cannot be occupied by people or artworks. In the centre of this building, there is a circle by means of which each part of the museum is lighted up (Figure 3). This is why this building is characterized as both inside and outside properly organized work with attractive and memorable forms that attract attention and excite visitors.

Understanding of typological characteristics of the Guggenheim Museum plays an important role in our analysis. Each period of architecture has its own specific characteristics that define the work of a certain period as a meaningful part. The typological characteristics of the Guggenheim Museum are closely connected to the characteristics which are inherent to modern architecture. Among the variety of these characteristics, such issues like an emphasis to horizontal and vertical lines in buildings, rejection of numerous historical styles and preferences and ornaments that fulfil the building, attention to expressed structure and building cores are more recognizable. Each of the above-mentioned features of modern architecture is inherent to the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is hard to notice that the architect used some historical conceptions to be recognized in this building. He demonstrated a powerful choice of machine aesthetic that underline the preferences of modern culture and the influence of progress on everyday life. Absence of ornaments is another characteristic that influences human perception about the building. Wright as no other architect before was eager to provide people with more space and make them free. He believed that ornaments and other items used in the building construction deprived people of a chance to think free and develop their personal imagination. The idea to attract more attention to the core of the building is one more peculiarity that is inherent to modern architecture. The use of vertical lines allows to play with the form of the building and to change it in accordance with the necessity. If it is necessary to use this space to represent an artwork, the central part of the building may be used. The choice to arrange the museum if the circle form and make use of numerous vertical lines prove once again the work’s belonging to Modernism. The Guggenheim Museum may be regarded as one of the most powerful and captivating example of how architecture was developing in the middle of the 20^th century and was improved by amazing imagination of architects.

Evaluation of the scheme

Guggenheim Museum in New York has a very unique scheme. It is worth mentioning that this building contradicts with the chess board type of building that are predominant in the New York City. The scheme of the building was first presented in 1944, 15 years before the museum was built. The matter is that the construction was delayed for several times: the first time was when the World War II started and the second time because of Solomon R. Guggenheim’s died in 1949. The design of the museum was namely Guggenheim idea and the scheme of it was assisted by his artist-protégé Rudolf Bauer, as well as by Baroness Hilla Rebay who, together with Wright himself, believed that such scheme is the most relevant for the museum: “In the museum Wright sought by means of a fantastic expanding helix to create a reposeful place in which paintings could be seen to better advantage that they have ever been seen” (Smith 1996, p. 431). Though there is an idea that the building as such was more important by Wright than the art, the scheme of the museum proves that the paintings benefite from the arrangement that the architect has chosen for them.

The scheme of the museum is extremely complicated, though the building itself produces an impression of simple and minimalist one. Originally, museum was composed of rotunda and Monitor, a little appendix that is now occupied with the Thannhauser Gallery. The support of the rotunda is ensured by twelve concrete walls that are spaced every 30 degrees and that are perpendicular to the circumference of a rotunda. They have the number of important functions in building. These twelve walls serve as a support for the spiral ramp leading to the top of the rotunda. Moreover, they indirectly participate in the support of the building central skylight because they connected at the roof forming at this hairpin beams that, in their turn, support the skylight directly. An important moment in this schim is the presence of continuous skylights along the perimeter of the building (Garnder, Kleiner, and Mamiya 2006). These skylights cannot be noticed at once because of the lay-lights that conceal them, but they still perform an extremely important function: they allow the natural light coming from the street to diffuse, which creates additional illumination for the paintings. Such a decision was born because Wright disliked for the original lighting in the building: “Wright wanted the major source to be natural (but glaring) illumination emanating from the glazed band that rings his continuous spiral, its light bathing the pictures angled against the wall” (Smith 1996, p. 432). This testifies to the fact that Wright not only did care about the art, but cared about it so much so he wished to present the paintings literally in a favourable light.

No less striking are the inner design of the museum. As it was already mentioned, Guggenheim Museum is a spiral, not a chess board type of building, which is why everything inside is supports the original scheme created by Wright. The first floor of the museum present a large curved overhang that has a dual purpose. Firstly, it gives an access to the loggia that situated underneath. And secondly, it serves as a bridge between two parts of the building. The next peculiarity (and the essence) of the building design is a six-floor spiral that creates a continual movement upwards. This spiral provides the access to the galleries the first of which starts with the ramp near the fountain on the ground floor (Garnder et al. 2006). The spiral culminates in a transparent dome that covers the central area of the building. This gives the museum a look of cathedral, only with a transparent dome. An upward spiral movement was Wright’s solution to the overlapping of the floors that can usually be observed in the galleries (such design is referred to as passive). It is also important to note that the perception of the space in the museum changes when the visitor moves down from the top of the building, which can be done in two ways: “Visitors can stroll up the ramp or take an elevator to the top of the building and proceed down the gently inclined walkway, viewing the artworks displayed along the path” (Garnder et al. 2006, p. 834). Several levels of the spirals have exits, so that there is no need to get to the first floor to leave the building. Therefore, the building is not only beneficial for the works of art presented in it, but also comfortable for its visitors.

Reactions of the public to the design

As it is known, everything that is unique always causes different opinions between the public. The genii often risk to be misunderstood and not duly appreciated. The opening of the Guggenheim Museum created a commotion among the New York citizens. However, the cause of this commotion was not only the architectural masterpiece, but the fact that it was been waited for so long. The public had its encounter with the museum shortly after the ribbon-cutting ceremony when fifteen hundreds people at once entered the building: “All afternoon, the line to enter the museum stretched a block long. In total, nearly three thousand visitors, far more curious about the eccentric museum than the art within it, visited the Guggenheim on opening day” (Hession, Pickrel and Wallace 2004, p. 113). As it was expected, the reactions of the public were the most controversial. Some people totally disapproving the design of the building, while the others left it in silent admiration. The remarks were made regarding the unusual style of the architect, the arrangement of the paintings within the gallery, and the inclined ramp which the museum visitors could hardly meet nowhere else.

One of the most important aspects to highlight here is that the opinions of the critics and the public differed much. It is impossible to state what this was caused by, the ignorance of the public with regards to architecture and, therefore, its admiration with what lies on the surface or the critics’ habit to attack everything that exceeds the limits of what they have got used to, but the press’s respond to the opening was far from praising. Time called the building “a mighty tower and babel of discord” (Hession et al 2004, p. 114) hinting at Wright’s controversial architectural style. Both the public and the critics mostly agreed in the idea that the interior were remarkable, though some critics still managed to disparages the ramp labelling it an “error that no ingenuity can overcome” (Hession et al. 2004). The arrangement of the pictures seemed an ‘error’ not to everyone: “One writer noted that while the paintings appeared “askew,” the unique experience of seeing works of art at a distance across the atrium and anticipating a close-up viewing when the incline delivered the visitor to them was quite alluring” (Hession et al. 2004, p. 114). The only thing about the building evoked universal praise was the central atrium that amazed the visitors with the vastness of space that it opened before them.

Despite such a reaction of the public and the critics, the value of the Guggenheim Museum was still recognized later. In the years that followed its opening, more and more architects started to adopting Wright’s style because the unusual design of the museum created an architectural sensation. This was when Times presented the museum in completely different light turning everybody’s attention with the fact that round buildings started replacing the square and rectangular ones all across the country. In this way, the works of the architects has been immensely influenced by Wright’s creation: “Former Wright nemesis Philip Johnson designed a lobby with stacked balconies for his 1964 New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, and his unrealized 1965-66 immigrant memorial for Elis Island utilized the spiral in its design” (Hession et al. 2004, p. 119). In the 1970s, the influence of Wright’s style on the American architecture became evident. The architects displayed special interest in museums the number of which has significantly increased in New York and the world. This started to be referred to as “museum mania” and the era for “museum as art” (Hession et al. 2004). This proves that Wright’s Guggenheim Museum became widely recognized not only in America, but in the rest of the world. Besides, it started to be depict in popular culture and even became a cultural icon. It was featured in films, such as Bye Bye Birdie, Men in Black, The Cremaster Cycle, and a number of others. Its picture often appears in magazines; the New Yorker, for instance, placed it on its cover several times. Thus, public’s first impression from Guggenheim Museum was erroneous because years later Wright’s talent has not only been sufficiently appreciated, but his style has been followed by a number of other architects.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration everything discussed above, it can be concluded that Frank Lloyd Wright was indeed an outstanding architect who has made a considerable contribution into the development of the American and world art. The greatest part of this contribution has been done mainly by his Guggenheim Museum the project of which has been on the architect’s mind long before the building started to be constructed. This museum is a work of early Modernism that, according to the Modernist theory, successfully united the concepts of space and structure. The material from which the building is made, the use of vertical and horizontal lines, its spiral construction, and other typological characteristics make Wright’s work really unique. It was namely this uniqueness of style that caused controversy among the public and critics some of which considered the museum design poor, while the others called it brilliant. But, some years afterwards, it was admitted that Wright’s creation was underestimated, which was followed by copying the architect’s style and which resulted in its becoming a cultural icon in the 21^st century.

Appendix

References

Alexenberg ML 2006 The Future of art in a digital age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic consciousness. Intellect Books, Bristol.

Garnder, H, Kleiner FS and Mamiya, CJ 2006, Gardner’s art through the ages: The western perspective, London.

Hession, JK, Pickrel, D and Wallace, M 2007, Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: the Plaza years, 1954-1959, Gibbs Smith, New York.

Preiffer BB 2004 Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: building for democracy. Taschen, London.

Smith, GEK 1996, Source book of American architecture: 500 notable buildings from the 10th century to the present, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.

Weston R Plans, Sections and elevations: Key buildings of the twentieth century. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, London.

Wright FL Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. n.d. Web.