New York’s Museum of Modern Art has revealed the full design for a multi-year expansion project, with the expanded museum expected to open its doors in 2019.
The goal of the expansion by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is three-fold: to better display the museum’s collection, to improve visitor experience and to connect the museum to its midtown Manhattan surroundings.
MoMA also unveiled the completed first phase, which began in 2016 and saw the museum’s east section renovated with three floors of enhanced galleries and public spaces. Two spacious new galleries will be used to show the museum’s collection and special exhibitions, while the building’s historic Bauhaus staircase now reaches down to ground level.
A lounge on the first floor has been created to face the sculpture garden; also overlooking the garden are a new museum store and an espresso bar located adjacent to the newly renovated Cafe 2.
The full expansion will enlarge the main lobby into a light-filled, double-height space linking new galleries to the renovated east side.
With the new gallery space on the western side, the museum hopes to display significantly more of its collection, creating interdisciplinary installations and rotating spaces devoted to specific mediums, such as photography, architecture and design.
New street-level galleries will be created on the west end, meanwhile, and the MoMA Design and Book Store will be visible to the street through a glass wall. The building will also be more open, “directly woven into the fabric of midtown Manhattan.”
The expanded MoMA is slated to open in 2019, with plans to devote the entire space to exhibitions and installations from its own collection to mark the occasion. The museum will remain open throughout construction. JB
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