The Guggenheim Museum is an embodiment of Wright's attempts to
render the inherent plasticity of organic forms in architecture.
His inverted ziggurat (a stepped or winding pyramidal temple of
Babylonian origin) dispensed with the conventional approach to
museum design, which led visitors through a series of
interconnected rooms and forced them to retrace their steps when
exiting. Instead, Wright whisked people to the top of the
building via elevator, proceeding downward at a leisurely pace
on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp. The galleries were
divided like the membranes in citrus fruit, with self-contained
yet interdependent sections. The open rotunda afforded viewers
the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on
different levels simultaneously. The spiral design recalled a
nautilus shell, with continuous spaces flowing freely one into
another. Source: Matthew Drutt,
www.guggenheim.org/the_building.html / '...[Wright's] great
swansong, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York, is a
gift o