ColorTherapy: The Guggenheim Museum's New Color

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...

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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

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Comments (5)

The pinky-beige of Desert Rose is the color of our soil here in Arizona. That's why it works here.

posted by wende in the twin cities on October 2nd 2007 at 6:39am
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Please, can we see each band in a different bold color, in honor of the Fall Colors contest?

posted by Pixie on October 2nd 2007 at 6:49am
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If you want colours for buildings --

http://www.legorretalegorreta.com/lego_new/proyectos.php

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/luis-barragan

posted by Deborah on October 2nd 2007 at 8:47am
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Forgive me, my friend, but "blend in to the neighborhood"?

posted by GoDogGo on October 7th 2007 at 5:29am
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This building is meant to be fun, sweet and original, rather than serious and institutional. The idea is to seduce and get people inside.

It may look a bit odd on the photo-montage but in the reality, with the natural light and shadows it would work really well. I say "Why not Desert rose?"

posted by Thierry on January 9th 2009 at 5:45pm
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