Mayor Bloomberg attended the groundbreaking today of the Whitney Museum of American Art at the base of the High Line Park in the Meatpacking District that was highlighted by a performance by the STREB Extreme Action Company, according to an article by Pete Davies at ny.curbed.com.
The museum, which is now located on Madison Avenue at 75th Street in a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture by Marcel Breuer, will move into in 2015 into a new building on Gansevoort Street between West Street and the High Line, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners.
The new 200,000-square-foot building, which will be 270 feet high, will have the largest column-free gallery with 18,000 square feet in New York City.
The new building will include more than 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of rooftop exhibition space, providing long-awaited opportunities to show more of the Whitney's collection of 20th- and 21st-century American art in tandem with cutting-edge temporary exhibitions.
The galleries in the Whitney's Madison Avenue building, total 32,000 square feet. The collection has grown from about 2,000 works at the time of the building's opening, in 1966, to more than 18,000 works.
Approximately 13,000 square feet of outdoor galleries situated on four levels of the building's rooftops will offer dynamic exterior exhibition spaces. A dramatically cantilevered entrance along Gansevoort Street will shelter a public plaza for art only steps away from the southern entrance to the High Line.
The building also will offer dedicated space for state-of-the-art classrooms and a seminar room; a research library; a large art-conservation area; a multi-use indoor/outdoor space for film, video and the performing arts; a 170-seat theater; and a study center (the classrooms, theater, and study center being firsts for the Whitney). Other amenities include a restaurant, a cafe, and a bookstore, which will contribute to the vibrant street life of the area.
According to the museum's press release, "Mr. Piano's design takes a strong and strikingly asymmetrical form - one that responds to the industrial character of the neighboring loft buildings and overhead railway while asserting a contemporary, sculptural presence. The upper stories of the building will stretch toward the Hudson River on the west side and step back gracefully from the elevated park of the High Line on the east side."
Renzo Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937, and in 1971 he founded the studio Piano & Rogers with Richard Rogers and together they won the competition for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a wildly flamboyant and marvelous high-tech building that is one of the major landmarks of 20th Century architecture.
The museum, which is now located on Madison Avenue at 75th Street in a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture by Marcel Breuer, will move into in 2015 into a new building on Gansevoort Street between West Street and the High Line, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners.
The new 200,000-square-foot building, which will be 270 feet high, will have the largest column-free gallery with 18,000 square feet in New York City.
The new building will include more than 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of rooftop exhibition space, providing long-awaited opportunities to show more of the Whitney's collection of 20th- and 21st-century American art in tandem with cutting-edge temporary exhibitions.
The galleries in the Whitney's Madison Avenue building, total 32,000 square feet. The collection has grown from about 2,000 works at the time of the building's opening, in 1966, to more than 18,000 works.
Approximately 13,000 square feet of outdoor galleries situated on four levels of the building's rooftops will offer dynamic exterior exhibition spaces. A dramatically cantilevered entrance along Gansevoort Street will shelter a public plaza for art only steps away from the southern entrance to the High Line.
The building also will offer dedicated space for state-of-the-art classrooms and a seminar room; a research library; a large art-conservation area; a multi-use indoor/outdoor space for film, video and the performing arts; a 170-seat theater; and a study center (the classrooms, theater, and study center being firsts for the Whitney). Other amenities include a restaurant, a cafe, and a bookstore, which will contribute to the vibrant street life of the area.
According to the museum's press release, "Mr. Piano's design takes a strong and strikingly asymmetrical form - one that responds to the industrial character of the neighboring loft buildings and overhead railway while asserting a contemporary, sculptural presence. The upper stories of the building will stretch toward the Hudson River on the west side and step back gracefully from the elevated park of the High Line on the east side."
Renzo Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937, and in 1971 he founded the studio Piano & Rogers with Richard Rogers and together they won the competition for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a wildly flamboyant and marvelous high-tech building that is one of the major landmarks of 20th Century architecture.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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