The Building

The Guggenheim building is one of the great works of American architecture.

It was designed in 1943 by Frank Lloyd Wright - the most celebrated American architect at the time.

It is a continuous spiral ramp, lit from a rotunda above, coiling upward from a wide base to an even wider top - reversing every architectural instinct of its era.

At 75, it was Wright's last major commission - and his most radical.

He spent 16 years fighting for it - against the city, the fire department, and fellow artists who thought a spiralling ramp was a terrible idea for a museum.

He died six months before it opened.

Fun fact : Wright and the museum's art adviser Hilla Rebay had a notoriously difficult working relationship.

Rebay said she wanted to build a 'temple of non-objectivity', but Wright thought her ideas were mystical nonsense.

The building was designed to be visited top-down - taking the elevator up and then walking slowly down the ramp - but most people do it the other way round!