The New National Gallery, Berlin, Kimbell Art Museum and Museum fur Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt are striking examples of modern museum design, built in three different decades. The Berlin Gallery was Mies van der Rohe’s last great building – a ‘temple’ to art in glass and steel. Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum is a building of severity and restraint, its architectural effects arising from rhythmical spaces and a refined treatment of materials. Richard Meier’s Museum fur Kunsthandwerk is a subtle and intricate building of shifted grids and superimposed planes – an interesting precursor to his Getty Center. By presenting these works together, one can examine the similarities and differences in approach taken by three renowned architects in designing buildings with successful interior museum spaces and exteriors that present a public message to the world.