Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim

Seton Melvin is the director of the brain donor program at Mount Sinai Hospital, a position she’s held since 1996. In her free time, Seton Melvin in actively involved with many art museums in New York City, including the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim is famous in part for its iconic exterior, designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and recently identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1943, Wright was commissioned to design a museum for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection, which was then held in a temporary space on 54th Street. He spent the next 15 years on the project, creating 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings for the building.

Construction began in 1956, and continued for 3 years, with the museum officially opening at the end of 1959. Tragically, Wright died 6 months before the completion. Many art critics declared that the building was as much a monument to Frank Lloyd Wright himself as it was an art museum.

You can tour the building virtually while listening to an audio guide by visiting https://www.guggenheim.org/plan-your-visit/guggenheim-from-home.

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