Emseal Colorseal celebrates 3 decades of successfully sealing wide expansion joints between the original building and its 10-story extension added back in 1992 at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC

Client: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Architects & Engineers: Thelwell Gwathmey Siegal Kaufman (concept by Wright in 1951)

Main Emseal Products Used: Emseal Colorseal is on Permanent Exhibition at this Landmark Museum following a hugely successful 24- year ‘run’ at the Guggenheim in New York City. Twenty-four years ago Emseal Colorseal system was installed between a neighbouring building and the 10-story Guggenheim museum office extension completed in 1992; it is clearly still as resilient and watertight as the day it was put in. Where’s the Emseal Colorseal? - The joint is between the limestone-faced building extension on the left of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic original and the darker neighbouring brick building to its left. For most designers expansion joints are a necessary evil – and ‘Evil’ for their disruption of design aesthetics – although when cleverly positioned, as in this case returned and rebated slightly back from the building face, the joint becomes a part of the shadow line. From just 2-3m away the joint remains essentially an insignificant 'shadow-line', and back in 1992 it was colour matched with the limestone façade as seen when viewed close-up. Today in 2022, the Emseal Colorseal joints are still fully intact and securely non-invasively bonded in position on both sides of the joint. The material is resilient and responsive, the stored energy of pre-compression remains very evident and there are no signs at all that the material is starting to degrade in the joints, even after this length of service in the exposed environment of NYC in Manhattan.