Colour clash as row breaks out over hue of New York’s restored Guggenheim

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A row has broken out over what colour paint should be used to coat the nearly restored Guggenheim Museum in New York

A row has broken out over what colour paint should be used to coat the nearly restored Guggenheim Museum in New York.

At a commission hearing last month, historic preservation groups argued that the iconic building should be restored to the 'buff yellow' colour originally chosen by the museum's architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

However, Wank Adams Slavin Associates (WASA), the architect carrying out the $27 million £13 million restoration, said the building should remain the off-white shade that the public is familiar with – despite the fact that Wright disliked white so much that he tried (unsuccessfully) to ban the museum from painting the interior walls white.

Speaking to US publication Newsday, Simeon Bankoff, executive director of New York's Historic Districts Council, said: 'This is the most visible work of the greatest American architect. Maybe we should treat it with some more respect.'

But, Pamela Jerome, director of WASA and the project architect on the restoration said: 'I've talked to lots and lots of people and I have yet to find somebody who remembers this building being buff yellow.'

New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission, which has the final say on changes to the museum's exterior, will settle the debate in the next few days.