The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, FL was designed by architect Yann Weymouth of HOK and opened in 1982. Weymouth sought to combine the rational with the fantastical: the museum is a simple rectangle with 18-inch thick hurricane-proof walls with the exception of the strangely organic and oozing geodesic glass bubble known as the “enigma”. The Enigma, made up of 1,062 triangular pieces of glass and standing 75 feet tall, serves as homage to the dome that adorns Dalí’s museum in Spain. The interior of the museum features a multi-story helical staircase to represent Dalí’s obsession with spirals and the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
