Dominick Labino was well known for his large-scaled cast glass windows, such as this one, and he made them for more than 15 public buildings and numerous private collections. Labino designed the pieces of writing paper, organizing the sections within a larger geometric form and noting the colors to be used. During the 1970s, no other American artist was fusing and casting glass of this size and complexity, and Labino never revealed his techniques. Ionic Structure of Glass was commissioned by the Museum to celebrate the opening in 1980 of its new circular aluminum, glass, and mirror building designed by the architect Gunnar Birkerts. Another special commission for the opening of the Museum's new building was Meteor, Flower, Bird, by Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, which is also on view in the gallery.