'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
A visitor arriving at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art sees a curved concrete facade with the museum's name and, behind it, a stand of trees on a hillside. Where's the museum? Get closer, then look down.
Art lovers got their first look Friday at the treasures amassed by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and displayed at the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, an enormous facility that took six years to build.
Safdie explained before the museum opened that the downward pressure from the arches, which support the copper exterior roofing, help protect the pavilions from being swept away by a tornado, an unnerving threat in this part of the country.
