Since the building itself is significant, the design set by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, also in New York, had to make the same impact. While the 29,000-square-foot building's exterior has a metallic facade, visitors are greeted with about 4,000 square feet of Pietre Piasentina limestone upon entering the ground floor. The floors, main staircase, caf?ountertops as well as a donor wall -- an 11- x 13-foot wall engraved with names of contributors to the museum -- are clad with limestone, which gives the stone a significant presence in the building.

"We chose the limestone because the coloring was quite nice," said Philip Ryan, assistant project architect at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. "The veining in it is controllable, and we could get good sizes and thicknesses, with 4-inch-thick pieces being the largest."