New Museum Details Planned Expansion, With New Restaurant and Expanded Bookstore

The New Museum alongside its OMA expansion.

COURTESY OMA/BLOOMIMAGES.DE

The New Museum in New York has revealed plans for a planned expansion slated for 2022, with a new building designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas to rise up alongside the institution’s home on the Bowery in downtown Manhattan.

The proposal for the expansion adds a new building in place of an old one next to 235 Bowery that has played home in recent years to NEW INC, the museum’s technology-focused think tank, as well as additional exhibition space. The new 60,000-square-foot building would add nearly 10,100 square feet of gallery space, with a connection between the new dwelling and spaces on the current museum’s second, third, and fourth floors. Alongside the expanded galleries—and a new home for NEW INC—the new building comes with plans for a restaurant and an expanded lobby and bookstore.

The design for a facade for the new structure at 231 Bowery calls for laminated glass and metal mesh, and is meant to provide a “higher degree of transparency” than the museum’s current building, according to a release. A stairway and new elevators will also be added part of the design.

In a statement sent to press, Lisa Phillips, the New Museum’s director, said, “We are thrilled to work with OMA to address our current and future needs, and selected them for their exceptional response to our brief, their civic passion, and future thinking. The OMA design will provide seamless connectivity and horizontal flow between the two buildings, expanded space for our world renowned exhibitions, and access to some of our most innovative programs that the public currently cannot see.”

According to a release issued on Wednesday, the New Museum’s expansion will cost $89 million to build. Of the funds, the museum has currently raised $79 million, with a $20 million gift from Toby Devan Lewis, the vice president of the New Museum’s board.

The cost of the expansion has been a point of contention for the New Museum union, which has alleged that its workers are not being adequately paid by the institution. At an action on Tuesday night, workers handed out flyers claiming that management had “disparaged” the union’s wage proposals.

The New Museum is not the only New York museum undergoing a significant expansion. The Studio Museum in Harlem is currently readying a new David Adjaye–designed building, and the Museum of Modern Art is shuttered until October 21 while it finishes a $450 million expansion.

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