Wright's vision took 16 years to be fulfilled. Set in sharp contrast to typically rectangular Manhattan buildings that surround it, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum building opened in October 1959. Even before it opened, the design polarized architecture critics. Some believed that the building would overshadow the museum's artworks. "On the contrary", wrote the architect, the design makes "the building and the painting an uninterrupted, beautiful symphony such as never existed in the World of Art before." Other critics, and many artists, felt that it is awkward to properly hang paintings in the shallow, windowless, concave exhibition niches that surround the central spiral. The building, nevertheless, became widely praised and inspired many other architects.