UPPER EAST SIDE — The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is throwing a birthday bash for Frank Lloyd Wright — the renowned architect who designed the museum's iconic structure — with cake, special programming and discounted admission.
For Wright's 150th birthday on Thursday, June 8, visitors to the Fifth Avenue museum will only have to pay $1.50 to get in, instead of the usual $25 admission fee, according to museum officials.
Starting at 10 a.m., an actor-historian portraying Wright will give a 15-minute overview of the design and construction of the Guggenheim in Cafe 3, and then he will greet visitors at the door until 12:30 p.m.
From noon to 1 p.m., Guggenheim staff will guide visitors on an architectural tour of the museum and will follow it up with cake in Cafe 3.
Visitors can also take part in a $25 sketching workshop called "Drawing the Guggenheim," take a different tour at 2 p.m. called "Remembering Frank Lloyd Wright" with Gallery Educator Joan Stern, and peruse the museum's Wright-related merchandise.
Three rarely seen, large-scale photos of the museum's construction will be on display in the cafe as well.
Wright was tapped to design the museum in 1943 but didn't get to see the spiral building, called a nautilus shell, completed in 1959.
"Wright whisked people to the top of the building via elevator, and led them downward at a leisurely pace on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp," said art editor Matthew Drutt for the Guggenheim Museum. "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."
The museum is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 89th Street and will be open from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. on June 8.
