BMW Museum

This guide to the BMW Museum in Munich follows architect Karl Schwanzer's gamble in 1968: a cross-shaped steel frame raised first, with four cylindrical floors then suspended from it rather than built up from the ground, at a height no one had attempted that way before. Alongside the tower, it traces his second idea next door, a windowless drum turned into a spiraling ramp meant to feel like driving up an on-ramp. Stand between the two buildings as you listen, with the tower overhead and the ramp beside you.