The Guggenheim Museum is undergoing a face-lift, and according to a recent item in the New York Times it will be painted in a new color. Just for fun, I though we’d make a guesstimate of what this world-famous icon might look like when finished...

Over the years, the museum has been painted in various shades of grey and white. But Apparently Frank Lloyd Wright hated white and had originally chosen something called “Cocoon” for the building’s façade, a color whose closest match is Benjamin Moore HC-35 Powell Buff. Landmark Commission approval of the change was required, due to the building’s protected status.

I picked up the paint chip and was surprised at how “dark” it is—like the color of a brown egg. But after playing with the color balances in photoshop I realized that the new building color won’t be any darker than the brick buildings surrounding it, and will probably blend into the neighborhood quite well.

But how about this: it seems that Wright favored the color Desert Rose for his Arizona projects. I wonder if it would hold water with the Landmark Commission?

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter