Designed by the American architect Richard Meier and built in steel, travertine, glass and plaster, the museum is the first major architectural and urban intervention in the historic centre of Rome since the Fascist era.

[2] The white color is a hallmark of Richard Meier's work, while the travertine plates decorating part of the building reflect design changes (aluminium surfaces were initially planned), resulting from a modification following criticism on the visual impact of the structure on the surrounding urban landscape.

[3] The museum's first building was designed by architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo and completed in 1938, during the Fascist era, as part of Mussolini's reconfiguration of Piazza Augusto Imperatore.

[9] Archeologist Adriano La Regina criticized it for the absence of the necessary protection screens from direct sunlight and for reducing "the Ara Pacis into the pretext for the building, rather than the other way around".

[10] The Italian art critic and polemicist Vittorio Sgarbi called it "A Texas gas station in the very earth of one of the most important urban centres in the world".