Thursday, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) revealed the completed renovation of the east end of its campus, anchored by its original 1939 Philip Goodwin/Edward Durell Stone structure, now called the Lauder Building.
Barely a decade after completing a $425-million expansion by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi in 2004, MoMA announced plans to expand again—this time enlisting New York-based Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in collaboration with Gensler. While the museum has seen annual attendance double to almost 3 million since the Taniguchi addition, according to MoMA, attracting more guests is not the goal of this latest project. “We want the best possible public spaces for our visitors,” says MoMA director Glenn Lowry, adding that “pace and pause” are the guiding principles for the new scheme.
That scheme includes the $50 million Phase I renovation that opens this month—in time to mount the Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive exhibition in the newly reconfigured third-floor galleries, on view from June 12 to October 1. More significantly however, $400 million of renovation and new construction—partially paid for by a $100 million gift from David Geffen—comprise a Phase II westward expansion that is anticipated to open in 2019.
