 Trumbauer's architect Howell Lewis Shay is credited with the building's plan and massing, although the perspective drawings appear to be in Abele's hand.When it opened in 1928, the building was criticized as being vastly overscaled and nicknamed "the great Greek garage".But, perched on Fairmount Hill and terminating the axis of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, it is now considered to be the most magnificently situated museum in the United States.