New Museum opens OMA-designed expansion
Photo: Jason Keen. All images courtesy New Museum.
After two years, the New Museum will reopen its doors this weekend, as its long-awaited $82 million expansion is finally complete. The seven-story, 60,000-square-foot addition, designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, one of the few projects combining the work of two living Pritzker Prize-winning architects, opens to the public on Saturday, March 21. Seamlessly combining with the existing SANAA-designed flagship on the Bowery at Prince Street, the project doubles the New Museum’s gallery space, adds a permanent home for its cultural incubator NEW INC, and introduces a new outdoor plaza and a 100-seat all-day cafe and restaurant.
Founded in 1977 in a temporary space on Hudson Street, the New Museum has since evolved into a hub for innovative art and ideas. In 2007, the museum opened its first purpose-built home on the Bowery, an aluminum-mesh-clad flagship known for its “skew-whiff” massing that stands in sharp contrast to the surrounding low-rise retail and residential buildings, according to the New York Times.
While the flagship’s design reflects the institution’s commitment to boundary-pushing art, the museum’s continued growth has necessitated an expansion. First announced in 2017, the project replaces a property at 231 Bowery that the museum purchased in 2008 and marks OMA’s first public building in New York City. The project was scheduled to finish last fall, but was delayed.
In contrast to the flagship building’s “hermetic” design, the addition offers a more transparent, angular counterpoint, using laminated glass with metal mesh to “recall and complement” SANAA’s facade while improving visibility. Inside, however, the transition from the old building to the new is nearly imperceptible. The added spaces feature minimalist concrete floors and steel-beam ceilings, as reported by the Times.
The expansion also addresses long-standing circulation issues, which often required visitors to use service stairwells or wait for a slow freight elevator, according to the Times. Three new elevators now improve access to all floors, including two dedicated to gallery use.
Ceiling heights on the second, third, and fourth floors have also been aligned to create “uninterrupted connectivity” between the two buildings, while a new entrance plaza and atrium staircase further enhance circulation.
New spaces for events and public programming will support the museum’s continued growth, including a new 74-seat forum and an expanded seventh-floor Sky Room, which has doubled in size while retaining its panoramic views of downtown Manhattan. Three new upper-floor terraces also offer views overlooking the Bowery.
Additionally, the upper floors will house a dedicated studio for artists-in-residence and a new purpose-built home for NEW INC, the museum’s cultural incubator, which offers its annual class of more than 120 creative entrepreneurs collaborative workspaces and cutting-edge production facilities.
At ground level, the expanded lobby will feature a larger bookstore and a full-service restaurant operated by the Oberon Group. Helmed by Executive Chef Julia Sherman, the restaurant will feature a “vegetable-forward” menu in an art-filled space, including a commission by Ian Cheng and custom furniture designed by Minjae Kim.
The expansion is named in honor of the late philanthropist Toby Devan Lewis, a longtime New Museum trustee whose $30 million donation is the largest in the museum’s history.
“Since our founding nearly 50 years ago, the New Museum has been a home for the most groundbreaking art of today and a haven for the artists who make it. Our new 120,000 square foot building on the Bowery signals our redoubled commitment to new art and new ideas, and to the museum as an ever-evolving site for risk-taking, collaboration, and experimentation,” Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis director of the New Museum, said.
Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Dario Lasagni
The museum’s inaugural exhibition, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” will mark the expansion’s opening by exploring artists’ “enduring preoccupation” with what it means to be human amid rapid technological development, as 6sqft previously reported.
Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Spanning the expanded museum, the thematic survey will feature works by more than 200 artists, writers, scientists, architects, and filmmakers, examining how technological and societal changes have reshaped conceptions of what it means to be human.
Featured artists include Sofia Al-Maria, Lucy Beech, Meriem Bennani, Cyprien Gaillard, Pierre Huyghe, and Tau Lewis, alongside 20th-century figures such as Francis Bacon, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Salvador Dalí, and Ibrahim El-Salahi.
The museum will also unveil a series of major new commissions that will be on long-term view in dedicated sites throughout the building, including a facade work by Tschabalala Self, a monumental sculpture by Klára Hosnedlová for the new atrium stair, and a work by Sarah Lucas for the public plaza at the building’s entrance.
During its opening weekend, the New Museum is offering free admission on March 21 and 22, but advanced registration has already sold out.
The museum will be open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with pay-what-you-wish extended hours on Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m.
Admission, which includes access to all exhibitions, is $25 for adults, $22 for seniors and people with disabilities, $19 for students, and free for visitors 18 and under.
RELATED:
