Talk about heavy! The facade, or outside, of The Met Breuer is made up of more than 1,400 granite slab, with each slab weighing 500 pounds.
Imagine this building upside down. What does it remind you of? A pyramid? Marcel Breuer [BROY-er], the architect who designed this building in 1963, wanted it to look like it was defying gravity. Notice how the largest part of the building is at the top and the smallest part is at the bottom. Breuer called this style "heavy lightness."
Explore the unique architecture and read about a secret world to discover on your next visit!
Each "eyelid" window juts out from the building at an angle to control how sunlight shines into the galleries.
Look to the right of the upside-down pyramid. Do you see the concrete wall that looks like a fin? The wall is part of the building. Marcel Breuer created it to separate the Museum from its neighbors. He wanted the building to convey that it would protect the art inside. But Breuer also wanted the people and art inside to connect with life outside to remind visitors that art comes from life.
Notice the large window at the top. It is called the Cyclops Eye, because it is the only window on the west side of the building. There are more "eyelid" windows shaped like trapezoids on the north side. They encourage visitors inside the Museum to look out and view the city as a work of art.
The space below the bridge is called the Sunken Garden.
Walk along the bridge that connects the sidewalk to the lobby. At the end of the bridge, a great glass wall invites you to enter the world of art. Once inside, this glass wall allows you to observe the world outside the Museum.
Stand on the steps to see Dwellings above the window.
Take the stairs up to the galleries and find a small village above a window. The artist Charles Simonds made the small buildings for what he calls Little People. He calls them Dwellings and there's more than one! Gaze out the window to find two more on the building across the street at 940 Madison Avenue. Hint: Look at the windowsills and chimneys.
Join us to celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Met Breuer! Discover more about this and three other buildings that Marcel Breuer designed in the exhibition Breuer Revisited: New Photographs by Luisa Lambri and Bas Princen, on view on the fifth floor through May 21, 2017.
Want to know more? Send us your questions by commenting below or emailing them to metkids@metmuseum.org.
