NEW YORK | Museums - expansions

[aquablue]

It looks like a very clean power plant or factory. For some reason, it's oddly attractive to me now. It fits its context very well.

I would have preferred something that was less 'industrial' looking, but that's the vibe of the area I suppose.

[chris08876]

Whitney Museum on the left.

[chris08876]

Frick Museum Abandons Contested Renovation Plan

Facing a groundswell of opposition to a proposed renovation that would have eliminated a gated garden to make way for a six-story addition, the museum — long admired for its intimate scale — has decided to abandon those plans and start over from scratch.

“It just became clear to us that it wasn’t going to work,” said a museum official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the board had not yet made the decision final with a vote.

“It won’t be the best plan, but we will go back and prioritize,” the official added. “There was just a number of voices out there and we heard them.”

With the proposed renovation, designed by Davis Brody Bond, the Frick, on East 70th Street in Manhattan, had sought to increase its exhibition space, open private upstairs rooms to the public and offer views of Central Park from a new roof garden.

But the plan faced strong criticism, much of it from a coalition, Unite to Save the Frick, that includes architects and designers like Robert A..M. Stern and Maya Lin, as well as three former commissioners of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission — Roberta Brandes Gratz, Stephen F. Byrns and Beverly Moss Spatt.

=============================
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/ny...=nyregion&_r=1

[chris08876]

Studio Museum in Harlem Unveils Design for Expansion

The Studio Museum in Harlem, whose ambitions have long been checked by the limitations of its 1914 building, will construct a new $122 million home designed by the British architect David Adjaye on West 125th Street.

Plans for the new building, which will occupy the museum’s current lot near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, are to be announced Monday.

With the new space, the museum, for the first time in its nearly 47-year history, will have a physical space created expressly to meet its needs and serve its mission: fostering and displaying work by artists of African descent.

No more droning air-conditioners in the galleries. Or children sitting on the floor for educational programs. Or total shutdowns of the museum three times a year because the current process of changing exhibitions is so disruptive to its operations.

“We have outgrown the space,” said Thelma Golden, the museum’s director and chief curator since 2005. “Our program and our audience require us to answer those demands.”

===========================
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/ar...s&emc=rss&_r=0

[chris08876]

Nice Whitney Shot:


Whitney 001 by julio cárdenas, on Flickr

[chris08876]

Bronx Museum Cafe Now Set to Open Next Week with Extended Hours

The new cafe at the Bronx Museum of the Arts is set to open next week.

Museum officials have now set Sept. 9 as the opening date for The XM Cafe, and they have extended its hours of operation to include Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Staff had originally planned to open the cafe on Aug. 2 and operate it only on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

However, in response to a large amount of community interest in the project, the museum will now open the cafe on Wednesdays as well.

The XM Cafe will operate on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Fridays from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. It will remain closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

To celebrate the opening, the first 50 guests on Sept. 9, 10 and 11 will receive a free small coffee, cappuccino or espresso.

========================
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2015...extended-hours

[chris08876]

Opponents of Natural History Museum Expansion Want Development Out of Park

The American Museum of Natural History's planned $325 million expansion into a surrounding park is "reckless and insensitive," says a local group pushing to get the project reduced or scrapped altogether.

The museum plans to open its new 218,000-square-foot Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation in 2019 or 2020 as a new exhibition hall for hands-on learning at West 79th Street and Columbus Avenue, according to an online explanation of the project.

But Defenders of Teddy Roosevelt Park Inc. think the expansion encroaches too much on the public Theodore Roosevelt Park, which surrounds the museum and has in the past been mistaken for museum property. The group wants the museum to use existing space or move other parts of its operation elsewhere to make room for the new center, they said.

Since forming on July 1, a few months after the project was first publicly announced, the Defenders have connected with more than 2,000 supporters, said group president Sig Gissler in an email.

Their Change.org petition calling on the museum to find alternative non-park space had garnered 1,737 signatures as of late Monday afternoon.

"Please don't diminish such a beautiful outdoor public space. They are already at a premium in our city," Tracy Reid wrote on the petition.

A town hall meeting is set to take place Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Fourth Universalist Society near the museum at 160 Central Park West.

The museum has attended more than 60 meetings with stakeholders, including community groups, elected officials and the local community board, said Dan Slippen, vice president of Government Affairs at AMNH.

“We take the community’s feedback and concerns very seriously, which is why I plan to attend the Town Hall meeting on Oct. 6 and listen very carefully," said Slippen in a statement.

"We understand there have been and will continue to be questions about the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. When the conceptual design is completed we look forward to sharing it with the community and continuing the discussion," he added.

============================
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2015...nt-out-of-park

[chris08876]

New-York Historical Society to Open Women’s History Center

The directors of the New-York Historical Society did not have to search hard for evidence that the role of women in history has long been underplayed. Within their own museum examples surfaced: the Tiffany lamps that were thought to have been the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his male designers.

Actually, scholars discovered a decade ago that Clara Driscoll, director of the Tiffany Studios’ women’s glass cutting department, and her staff, known as the Tiffany Girls, produced many of the most prized and valuable lamps, including those with insect and flower motifs, like the “Wisteria” and the “Dragonfly.”

“That made us think about the relationship between women and objects in our own collection and, by extension, women more generally,” said Louise Mirrer, the society’s president and chief executive. “We started to think about how we could better display the lamps in the context of this discovery as a permanent feature.”

One result of those deliberations is to be announced on Thursday, when the society unveils plans for a new Center for the Study of Women’s History, which will be devoted to women’s history exhibitions and scholarship.

The center will be on a redesigned fourth floor, adjacent to a new glass gallery designed by the architect Eva Jiricna that will feature the society’s significant Tiffany lamp collection.

The renovation of the floor — the overall name of which will remain the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture — is to cost $31 million. The city has contributed $10.8 million, and the society has raised the rest privately. In 2011, the society reopened after an extensive $65 million renovation that closed part of the museum for a year.

The 1,300-square-foot women’s center gallery is to be named for Joyce B. Cowin, a philanthropist who donated $1 million. Along with the 3,000-square-foot glass gallery (featuring a transparent staircase and 100 illuminated Tiffany lamps), the women’s history center is to open in early 2017.

=======================
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/ar...er=rss&emc=rss

[chris08876]

Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks

As they skate or snack in Bryant Park, visitors might dismiss the stately New York Public Library next door as a dog-eared relic in an age of digital information.

But unbeknown to most of them, 17 feet below ground, in a concrete bunker worthy of the White House, the library is expanding and updating one of the most sophisticated book storage systems in the world.

Since March, after abandoning a much-criticized plan to move the bulk of its research collection to New Jersey, the library has been working instead to create a high-tech space underground for the 2.5 million research works long held in its original stacks.

The books will begin arriving in April, and by the end of spring library officials expect to be using a new retrieval system to ferry the volumes and other materials from their 84 miles of subterranean shelving, loaded into little motorized carts — a bit like miniaturized minecars carrying nuggets of research gold.

To fit all the books in the allotted space, the library will have to abandon its version of the Dewey Decimal System, in which shelving is organized by subject, in favor of a new “high-density” protocol in which all that matters is size.

The Bryant storage space consists of two floors, the first of which was put into use in the late 1980s, while the second floor, dug out but not finished back then, has lain fallow. Now, to accommodate the books long housed in the original 105-year-old stacks, a part of the library whose future is still under discussion, the second floor is being turned into a state-of-the-art storage hub.

This was not, of course, Plan A. That plan entailed a makeover of the flagship Fifth Avenue library that would have sent the research books to Princeton, N.J. But it set off a virtual Fahrenheit 451 of outrage among scholars and others for whom the library’s role as a research mecca seemed endangered. Critics, who hoped the old steel stacks could stay in use, remain apprehensive about the new stocking and retrieval system, which they say is impressive but has not been tested.

============================
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/bo...er=rss&emc=rss

[chris08876]

MoMA files plans for estimated $93M expansion

The Museum of Modern Art is planning its biggest masterpiece yet, not that you’ll get it.

The museum is moving ahead with plans for an estimated $93 million expansion at the former home of the American Folk Art Museum, according to an application filed with the New York City Department of Buildings Tuesday. The plans for an adjacent lot, at 45 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, call for 32,842 square feet of new space, which will include theaters, a library/lounge, classrooms, exhibit space and gardens, the application indicates. The estimated cost of the expansion, according to the application, is $93 million. MoMA representatives didn’t immediately return calls seeking confirmation on the stated estimate.

The filings are the latest step in the museum’s efforts to build out its 11 West 53rd Street space into a neighboring lot, occupied by the former folk art museum. MoMA bought the property in 2011 for $32.1 million, after the folk art museum relocated to a smaller space at Lincoln Square.

Last year, MoMa representatives said demolition of the folk art museum was necessary for the expansion, since the new space will connect to existing galleries and three floors of the planned 53W53, a Jean Nouvel-designed tower next to the MoMa.

===========================
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/11/....eRs9mSUf.dpuf

[chris08876]

JAZZ MUSEUM OPENS IN FEBRUARY

The Natioanal Jazz Museum in Harlem is set to open next month at its new home in the commercial space of Uptown 58. This is the development next door to Lenox Coffee at 58 West 129th Street just west of Lenox Avenue. As previously mentioned, the Harlem institution was previously housed in an out of the way location on the east side and should have greater visibility at this more central location.

=========================
http://harlembespoke.blogspot.com/20...-february.html

[chris08876]

New design coming to the Met’s modern art wing

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is planning a blockbuster addition.

The tony museum, which sits along Fifth Avenue between East 80th and 84th streets, previously announced it had chosen British architect Sir David Chipperfield to develop a new design for a Southwest Wing for its modern and contemporary art.

According to the Met, that assignment “includes the potential to include the adjacent galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas as well as additional operational spaces.”

The size of the entire project will encompass plenty of elbow room at 180,000 square feet, says Daniel Brodsky, the real estate developer, who is also chairman of the Met’s board.

“It will be no higher than the existing buildings that are there,” he advised. “It goes down and up to a rooftop with a terrace.”

The Met’s current terrace has been a big hit, so more outdoor space on its additional top is a no-brainer.

=======================
http://nypost.com/2016/01/19/new-des...dern-art-wing/

[chris08876]

The New Museum Announces Expansion into 231 Bowery

As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the New Museum announced this week that it’s launched an $80 million capital campaign to help expand programming.

On the ground, this means that the art institution, on the Bowery for ten years already, will renovate the adjacent property and nearly double in size. The goal is to create additional galleries, support spaces, and offices. “The expansion effort will ultimately enable the Museum to double its exhibition galleries, expand educational initiatives, improve circulation, add more public amenities, and improve the visitor experience,” a press release notes.

News of the expansion next door isn’t surprising. It was part of the plan all along. The New Museum purchased 231 Bowery back in 2011 (four years after its stack of boxes opened) with the intention of adding more space for operations. Daroma Restaurant Equipment was a victim and moved down the block to Delancey.

So far, the aforementioned capital campaign is halfway funded, with $43 million pledged.

“With our fortieth anniversary approaching, the New Museum is preparing for our next step as a pioneer for new models in the cultural arena,” said New Museum President James Keith Brown. “We will expand into our adjacent building, further grow our global exhibitions and programs, and continue to lead in distinctive technology initiatives. The Museum’s energy and creativity will enable us to explore how we can further advance our founding tenets and our mission of ‘New Art, New Ideas.’”

=========================
http://www.boweryboogie.com/2016/05/...on-231-bowery/

[chris08876]

New Statue of Liberty Museum Planned

As the Statue of Liberty nears its 130th anniversary, a new free-standing 20,000-square-foot museum is being planned that would accommodate far more people than the current exhibition space in the statue’s pedestal.

The project is intended to increase public access to exhibits on the history, construction and legacy of the statue, and provide additional shelter during inclement weather, according to an environmental review the National Park Service released last month.

Currently only about 20% of visitors to Liberty Island can access the pedestal that houses the museum, and those who do so must undergo additional security screening.

“We like it. We just can’t fit enough people in it,” John Piltzecker, the park service’s superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, said on a tour of the existing museum this week.

No cost estimates were available for the new facility. If approved, it would take about two years to build.

The proposed site is on the northwest side of the island across the plaza from the statue, offering a view of Lady Liberty’s backside from entry stairs that would double as a resting place for visitors, according to the review.


The effort would be privately funded and is still in the conceptual and planning phase, according to the park service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the nonprofit that raises money for restoration and historic preservation efforts at the two sites.

======================
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-stat...s_newyork_news

[NYguy]

http://archpaper.com/2016/07/bronx-u...lery-0-slide-0

Renderings revealed for the Bronx’s Universal Hip-Hop Museum


By AUDREY WACHS
July 20, 2016

New renderings by Mike Ford (a.k.a. the Hip-Hop Architect) of BrandNu Design depict the Universal Hip-Hop Museum (UHHM) that could grace the Bronx in the very near future.

Although the idea for the museum has been germinating for a few years, this is the first time renderings are available for a specific site. The renderings depict a museum—complete with interactive exhibitions and a screening room—at the site of the Bronx Borough Courthouse, a disused neoclassical 1930s municipal building. The courthouse plaza features an amphitheater centered around a sculpture. As the birthplace of hip-hop, the Bronx is a natural choice for the UHHM, which would be the first standalone museum devoted to the genre, its history, heritage, and the culture the music nurtures.

The museum was originally intended as one point in the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment plan, Ford told Curbed. The courthouse became the site at the urging of state assemblyman Michael Blake, who thought that the museum would be a great focal point for his district. With support from hip-hop pioneers like Ice T. and Kurtis Blow, Ford teamed up with Autodesk for a three-day design charette with industry leaders, locals, students, and program partners to craft a preliminary vision of the museum

Right now, the UHHM is speaking with state and local officials to determine how much funding could be available for the museum. The Bronx is one of the poorest counties in the state, and the museum could be a vital source of jobs for the borough. Stakeholders are discussing the possibility of negotiating a long term lease of the courthouse for the museum.

Site...


finitor

[NYguy]

http://ny.curbed.com/2016/7/19/12167...hip-hop-museum

[mrnyc]

wow - now that would be beyond the beyond awesome reuse of the old courthouse.

i often work nearby and look at the courthouse and wonder what could be done with it, as does everybody else in the area. its just frustrating to have those immediate passing thoughts every time you look at it. i really hope some coalition of music entertainment people can pull together to make this happen.

[chris08876]

American Museum of Natural History’s $325M expansion pushes forward

On Thursday the American Museum of Natural History filed plans for its anticipated expansion with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, marking the project’s first major advance since it was first revealed in November, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The filing came with a few surprises, namely a change in its footprint that would allow the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation to take up less space in the surrounding Theodore Roosevelt Park while also requiring fewer trees to be axed in the process.

Responding to requests from the community, the new plan requires the Studio Gang-designed expansion to swallow up a quarter of an acre of Theodore Roosevelt Park rather than half an acre, as previously planned. It also reduces the number of trees lost—a major sticking point for the community—from nine to seven.

Despite all of this, the expansion has actually grown in size by about eight percent to 235,000 square feet. The extra square footage doesn’t mean the building will be taller or take up more park space. Instead, the design has been tweaked to maximize use in areas of an existing building, while removing three other existing buildings.

With the rise in square footage comes a rise in the anticipated price tag. As of now, the expansion is expected to cost $325 million.

=================
CBNY
http://www.wsj.com/articles/natural-...lan-1473376547

[mrnyc]

temporary cheetos museum at grand central.

yes, cheetos!

http://www.metro.us/new-york/celebra...-y8ddPba0LKZM/

[chris08876]

Design for new Statue of Liberty museum unveiled

A new museum that seemingly rises out of the ground will replace the small exhibition space inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, its grass roof blending with the landscape and affording sweeping views of the iconic symbol of hope and freedom and New York Harbor.

Officials on Thursday unveiled the design for a new Statue of Liberty Museum at a groundbreaking ceremony on Liberty Island, which sees 4.3 million visitors each year.

Slated to open in 2019, the 26,000-square-foot building, constructed of glass, granite and concrete, will be sited across the circular plaza from the statue.

Architect Nicholas Garrison said the goal was to design a building that didn’t compete with the statue and wasn’t the first thing visitors saw as they disembarked the ferry.


“We wanted to make sure our building didn’t impede the experience,” Garrison said.

Designer Diane von Furstenberg is leading the fundraising for the $70 million project, $40 million of which has been raised, said Stephen Briganti, president and CEO of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

The angular-shaped museum, inspired by the water’s edge, has a monumental staircase that rises to the rooftop, featuring a paved terrace and grassy surface meant as a habitat for migratory birds.

The green roof plays off the idea that it’s an extension of the park, said Garrison, a partner at FXFOWLE and the project’s designer.

“It’s as if the museum had been lifted out of the ground and the ground goes with it,” he said.

The museum entrance is halfway up the steps, where it opens up into a wide patio.

“It’s also a natural grandstand for an event that could happen in the plaza,” Garrison said, adding that the roof and steps could also be a stage for a performance.

===========================
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/na...useum-unveiled