[1] The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem (“Bon Voyage,” “Good Journey”) beach and also a neighborhood, the 817 square metres (8,790 sq ft) reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base “like a flower,” in the words of Niemeyer.

[citation needed] A wide access slope leads to a Hall of Expositions, which has a capacity for sixty people.

Two doors lead to the viewing gallery, through which can be seen Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and Sugarloaf Mountain.

When the mayor, Jorge Roberto Silveira, sent the museum project to the city council to obtain the rights to construction, it was accepted in only two days.

After the inauguration of the MAC, which substantially increased the property values of nearby areas, the land was sold for more than 5 million reals (approximately 1,250,000 US dollars) in 1996.