Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods for designing multilayer nanowire crossbars that are functionally equivalent to two-layer nanowire-crossbar designs. Given a two-layer nanowire-crossbar design having two or more columns of microregions, in certain embodiments, the method conceptually folds the two-layer nanowire crossbar between columns of microregions. The folded nanowires, located in the conceptually folded, two-layer nanowire-crossbar design, are collapsed into shorter length nanowires to give a multilayer nanowire-crossbar design that includes the same number of nanowire junctions as in the two-layer nanowire-crossbar design.