Wrighting the Wrongs

How much does it cost to fix a building designed by one of America's greatest architects? About $29 million.

That's what the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum said in a statement issued yesterday. (The New York Times' Robin Pogrebin had the advance story.

The façade of the structure on Manhattan's Museum Mile was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959, and while a 1992 renovation by Charles Gwathmey fixed some problems on the inside, this one focuses on the outside — there are cracks in outer shell — and infrastructure.

The architectural conservators working on the Guggenheim are the same ones who fixed up Wright's Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, so that the cantilevered portion of the house that extended out over the river didn't, in fact, fall into it for lack of sufficient reinforcement. (It cost about $11.5 million to do all the work on structure.)

When Fallingwater was doctored, its director — the house is now a public institution — told Lee Rosenbaum, writing for the Wall Street Journal, that Wright didn't deserve any blame because his structure was an "experiment."

The Guggenheim appears to be lobbying for an equally forgiving view of Wright's work, claiming, "Using Methods and Material Unavailable to Wright, Guggenheim Will Be Restored to 'Better-than-Ever' Condition."