1960s, Richard Meier belonged to the "New York Five" architects' group, who further developed the functional style of 1920s and '30s European modernism in the tradition of the early Le Corbusier. Their common attribute is the colour white. In his design for Frankfurt's Museum Angewandte Kunst, Meier integrated the neo-classicist Metzler family villa in existence since the nineteenth century and thus created an ensemble consisting of the surrounding park, the villa, and the new building. The museum was dedicated on 25 April 1985 after a three-year construction period. The new building is an L-shaped complex composed of three cubes literally surrounding the Villa Metzler and joining it to form a square. The villa provided the basis for the dimensions of the three cubes. At the centre of the four cubes is an inner courtyard from which the museum entrance is accessed. In the building's interior, a pedestrian ramp connects the light-flooded exhibition levels. The large windows generously link the interior with the museum's surroundings. Since the spring of 2013, following a structural alteration phase in which older partitions and structural additions of the 1990s were removed, visitors have once again had the opportunity to experience the original Richard Meier architecture: light-flooded spaces, interlocking generously and granting a view of the park and river. Metzler Park The museum park connects the Museum Angewandte Kunst with the Museum der Weltkulturen, while also serving as a "passageway" to the Main for the residents of the Sachsenhausen district. It ends in the east at a gate through the boundary wall opening onto Schifferstrasse; from there one can look along the entire length of the axis. The park, which was likewise taken into consideration in the Richard Meier design, had already long enjoyed a special reputation on account of its rare trees and plants. Its origins can be traced back to the activities of the apothecary Peter Salzwedel, who purchased the property in 1800. He planted ginkgoes, northern red oaks, a tulip tree, a giant redwood, common beech trees and chestnut trees in the approximately 10,000-square-metre area. Johann Wolfgang Goethe is said to have been familiar with the garden, even though he already lived in Weimar, and to have praised it highly. In 1815 he dedicated his poem Ginkgo Biloba to his inamorata Marianne von Willemer of Frankfurt – with a leaf from the Salzwedel ginkgo. Georg Friedrich Metzler, a member of the famous bankers'