I’ll never forget my first glimpse of the Guggenheim—the original one, on Fifth Avenue, the one that is called, in full: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It was a school trip (one of the advantages of growing up in the culture-conscious environs of Manhattan). I stepped off the bus onto the tree-covered sidewalk alongside Central Park, and there it was: Frank Lloyd Wright’s revolutionary, upside-down wedding cake rising like an ancient monument above the concrete and tarmac.

What is most surprising to me, learning that 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the building, is not how quickly time has flown or that I seemed so much a part of the zeitgeist by the time I first saw it, but that the date was 1960 when the museum was practically brand new. Thirteen-year-old me thought it must have been around forever. It had, after all, appeared in Life.

One of the things that intrigued me about the museum was the notion that if you dropped a marble on the top of the long, single ramp that forms the heart of the exhibition space, that little glass orb would roll all the way to the lobby. Fixated on this idea, I arrived equipped with a pocketful of marbles and let them go just shy of the top level (I had to wait until the teachers strolled down past me). Before you try it for yourself, I should point out that my experiment was a dismal failure. Although the marbles made quite a bit of noise and attracted a lot of attention, they rolled only as far as the elevator on the floor below, thanks to centrifugal force (about which I was at the time as sadly ill-informed as I was about museum etiquette—apparently I learned nothing at the Met that day in the fourth grade when I touched their Van Gogh).

I don’t remember what art I managed to see that day at the Guggenheim, but I do remember the building and the magnificent view up to the skylight and down to the main floor. But mostly I remember the almost reverential hush, the vertiginous grandeur, and my delight at the shapes, the scale, the miraculous geometry of the place. And I remember embarking on a love affair with architecture that continues to this day.

To celebrate the anniversary of its flagship, the Guggenheim has arranged an exhibition titled “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward” (through August 23). The museum has partnered with Rizzoli to publish a stunning catalog of the same name, which is a compendium of the master builder’s work. So indulge yourself with a visit and/or give yourself the book as a treat.

Michael Lassell,
Features Director, Metropolitan Home