The Structure Frank Wright’s design put his unique stamp on modernist Architecture’s unyielding geometry. He used triangles, ovals, arcs, circles and squares. Circulatory is the leitmotif, from the rotunda to the inlaid design of the terrazzo floors. The interior of the museum is one of the great architectural spaces of the twentieth century. Wright’s inverted ziggurat dispensed with the conventional approach to the museum’s design. As a museum it involves easy and efficient circulation, unlike those museums with its galleries consisting of a series of interconnected boxlike rooms. The design of the building whisked people off their feet via elevator, they were then able to travel downward at a leisurely pace on a continuous ramp that has a gentle slope. The open rotunda afforded viewers the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on different levels at the same time. The spiral design recalled a nautilus shell, with continuous spaces flowing freely into one another. The museums proximity to Central park was important; Nature not only lent the museum inspiration but also provided it relief from New York’s distractions. The museum is an embodiment of Frank Wright’s attempts to portray the inherent plasticity of organic forms in architecture.   HOME