This interactive timeline documents the sixteen-year process of designing and building the Guggenheim Museum. The museum’s online audience is global and the project shares with it the experience of a building that they might never see in person.

Developed for an audience that seeks to engage with the museum’s story, Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and the building’s important place in art and architectural history, the site presents rich, diverse content in an engaging manner. In addition to the chronological timeline, a textual narrative frames the materials through a variety of thematic stories and original documentation ranging from telegrams to paint swatches to architectural drawings. The site also contains videos of experts discussing the building and historical footage of opening day.

Users are given a wide swath of navigational choices to suit a variety of preferences. For users who enjoy reading the texts, the site allows for navigating chronologically or by theme. For more visually-oriented users, images, video, and audio are surfaced quickly and can be toggled between easily, allowing for a more visual absorption of the material. Enlargement options allow for a balance between ease of navigation and load performance and offering a sense of the richness and texture of the original documents.

• The site was developed as part of a yearlong celebration of art, architecture and innovation marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building that included online and offline content, programming, exhibitions and educational events.

• From concept to completion, the site took eight people five months to produce.

• There are 175 separate image, video and audio assets.