All this is made easier in a city that is built on precise north-south and east-west axes, perfectly in tune with the cycle of the sun, like a solar machine. The Modern Wing shelter will give the museum what it needs in terms of light, much as the open lattice of the Pritzker Pavilion gives shelter to the Great Lawn in terms of sound.
Limestone, a material used in the construction of the entire museum from its original Beaux Arts palace to recent additions, rises from the ground like a topographic relief, massive and solid, as though it has always been there. Above this topos, the building stands light, transparent, and permeable in steel and glass, in the great tradition of Chicago buildings: solid and robust yet at the same time light and crisp.