The Wright
1071 5th Avenue
New York, New York
Tel: 212-427-5690
Designer: Andre Kikoski Architect

Destination restaurants are increasingly becoming part of the museum experience. The latest, the Wright at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, comes with the history of one of the world’s most distinctive buildings around it. Andre Kikoski, the architect for the restaurant, has created a space that pays homage to the building’s centrifugal forces but is clearly of this time. “We were exploring how your view can change as you move through a space. We didn’t have a rotunda, but we wanted a space that you would react to,” Kikoski said. The 1,600-square-foot space includes a large curved bar, a communal table, and banquette seating. A tiered, curved ceiling canopy, made from tensile fabric over a steel frame, gives the compact space its focal element. A site-specific installation by the artist Liam Gillick, made of bands of powder-coated aluminum, wraps the wall and ceiling and forms a screen element near the entrance. In addition to Frank Lloyd Wright, the restaurant’s curves and bright colors call to mind the work of Vasily Kandinsky, another important figure in the institution’s history—a history that continues to evolve.