Museum of Modern Art

Primary classification: Education (EDC)

Secondary classification:

Federal, State, or Local Designation(s) and Date(s):

Original Brief:

In (e)1996, the Museum of Modern Art embarked on an expansion program that would address its ongoing issue of an ever-growing modern art collection in a scale that would encompass an eight-year span of time including a new north wing and the renovation and restoration of its existing buildings in a complex plan, designed to bring the MoMA into the twenty-first century as a unified whole. The extreme scope of this expansion would require the deconstruction of the historic Dorset Hotel in order to construct the new north wing and the temporary relocation of its operations to an alternate site in Queens, New York. The unprecedented expansion was unveiled to the public in 2004 and is reflective of the museum’s seventy-eight year history of dedication to modern art as witnessed by its series of previous expansions, individually representing the span of modern architecture, however brought together in its current expansion by the Japanese architect, Yoshio Taniguchi. In order to fully understand the impact of the 2004 expansion, it is important to reflect on MoMA’s humble beginnings in 1929 and subsequent expansions over its history driven by the ongoing passionate vision of its original founders. Through the determined spirit of its founders to enrich and educate the world through the exhibition of contemporary art, the once considered outrageous movement of modern art developed into an international phenomenon, originally rooted in the Museum of Modern Art.

In (e)1929, in a period where modern art was still considered controversial, Mrs. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Miss Lizzie P. Bliss, and Mrs. Cornelius Sullivan boldly combined their underrepresented artworks and founded the Museum of Modern Art based on their collective belief and determination to enlighten the public with the first museum of its kind in the United States. To assist in their rather large endeavor, they enlisted Mr. Conger Goodyear as their president, a former trustee of the Albright Gallery in Buffalo and mutual firm believer in the modern art movement. Over time, the founding committee grew to include members of New York’s financial elite. In maintaining their collective vision, Alfred H. Barr Jr. was hired by the committee as the MoMA’s first director. His passionate drive to develop a museum that would be recognized as a center of education and exhibition space for the display of international modern art coupled well with the committee’s mission of enlightenment.[1]

Architectural and other Designer(s): In (e)1929, Museum of Modern Art started out in a rather modest twelfth floor leased space within the Heckscher building, located at on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. For three years it occupied this space and in the spring of (e)1932 it held its last exhibition on site, “International Modern Architecture”, curated by the newly hired chairman of MoMA’s Department of Architecture, Philip Johnson in collaboration with Russell Hitchcock, both recognized as founders of the International Style of architecture. It was through this unprecedented exhibition, that the Museum of Modern Art became involved in constructing the notion of Modernism. In May of (e)1932 the MoMA secured an alternate location in a townhouse at 11 West 53rd Street. This move benefited the museum by providing double the space for exhibitions and business transactions while securing a more professional atmosphere.[3] Although the original townhouse has since been demolished, it is noted as once occupying a small parcel of land on which the current museum stands. Ten years after the MoMA’s founding director, Alfred H. Barr commissioned the architectural firm of Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone to design a museum that would transform the conventional exhibition space, historically designed to house treasured artwork, into the MoMA’s first “purpose-built home”. [3, 4] Goodwin and Stone’s design represented the museum’s goal to pay tribute to the founders of Modern Art, in addition to following the design elements of Modernism. The (e)1939 museum interior represented the International Style, which included a design that would “make simple, straightforward interiors.” The exterior was modest in form; cladding the 53rd Street entrance in deeply veined marble and translucent white glass, which to Alfred Barr, contributed to the natural lighting of the galleries. Over time, however, it was found that the natural light was too bright against the artwork and was decidedly blocked off with walls.[5] The building’s most distinguishable features included the cornice, which was lined with a pattern of round cutout reveals, the elliptical entrance canopy, and modernist staircase, which exuded an understated modernist style. The Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden was also designed at the same time of the building construction in order to display outdoor sculpture while creating an urban place of respite. The garden occupied the former backyard of the razed lot where the Mrs. Rockefeller’s home once stood and was commissioned by David Rockefeller in order to honor the memory of his mother.[6]

Others associated with Building/Site:

Significant Alteration(s) with Date(s): MoMA’s interest in creating additional space for its growing modern art collection and educational facilities, required further acquisitions of land parcels on adjacent lots, which lead to expansion campaigns, occurring between (a)1949-84. The 1950s and 1960s expansions primarily focused on an outward expansion of the MoMA to adjacent land and were in general well received. However, of all the alterations made to the complex, it was the (e)1984 expansion that received the most criticism. In the period between (a)1949-51, Philip Johnson was commissioned to redesign the Grace Rainey Rogers Annex, on the west side of the Goodwin and Stone building with its façade facing 53rd Street.[4] From (a)1952-53, Johnson was also commissioned to remodel the original 1939 Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. He described his garden design as more of a room built to accommodate the display of outdoor sculpture, especially those works acquired by Alfred Barr. The garden was designed to allow the city dweller to enjoy the outdoors while viewing displayed art work within the context of an enclosed space, removed from the city street.[6] By (e)1963 MoMA had acquired the former neighboring Whitney Museum of Art building at 20 West 54th Street, and commissioned the architectural firm of Johnson and Augustus Noel to incorporate the two building structures into a new North Wing. Included as part of the expansion, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room, originally established in (e)1949, moved to its new location in (e)1965.[3, 4] Also during this period, Philip Johnson was again commissioned by MoMA to design additions to adjacent buildings, including the People’s Art Center, the Lillie B. Ross International Study Center, and Photography Center.[3] By (e)1964 the East Wing and Garden Wing, also designed by Johnson is opened with an enlarged sculpture garden. By February of (e)1976, the museum made a controversial announcement of its combined-use project, which involved “the construction of a new West Wing and independently developed condominium tower” to rise above it.[7] In order for the plan to be accomplished, the museum had to sell its existing “air rights” to the developer, Museum tower Associates, allowing for the high rise complex to be built at a height of fifty-six stories, staggering in comparison to its neighboring buildings. The original International Style of the (e)1939 building was considered lost within a modified architectural structure which seemed by most to set the museum in a backwards pace rather than into the future of modern architectural design, thus compromising the MoMA’s future reputation as a leader in the world of Modern Art.[3] Cesar Pelli, Dean of Yale’s School of Architecture, was commissioned to create a new tower for the ever-growing modern art collection, which doubled the available space for exhibition.[4] In the period, from (a)1979-84, Pelli developed an expansion plan that disarmed those who had always thought of the (e)1939 original MoMA as a shocking but somehow welcome avant-garde intruder to the once low-leveled streetscape of townhouses on West 53rd Street. The eclipsing scale by comparison and nondescript glass façade of the new adjacent tower was recognized as a mediocre attempt at modern architectural design, hardly avant-garde and in no way near in quality of the original (e)1939 design which had so eloquently displayed the then freshness of the International Style. The interior of the new MoMA in this expansion was also met with criticism for its loss of continuity in intimate gallery spaces. The expansion doubled the size of the existing gallery spaces, and removed the once cherished element of intimacy between the viewer and the work of art. On a positive note, the expansion of gallery space did allow for the more organized display of artworks which had yet to be viewed due to lack of wall space. In the end, the museum was credited for its management of continued operations with active exhibition program throughout the renovation process. The (e)1984 expansion program, although heavily criticized for its aesthetic, weighed in with several positives results including a more extensive gallery space, a new glass Garden Hall which over looked the existing sculpture garden and incorporated a set of new escalators, updated mechanical systems, expanded study centers and library, second theater, and expanded bookstore.

Current Use: By (a)1996, more than ten years since the MoMA’s last expansion, trends in contemporary art started to shift in scale to a point at which the museum felt a pressure to reconsider the scale of its existing gallery spaces. The museum felt the need to maintain Alfred Barr’s original vision for the MoMA, which described the galleries as laboratories in “a metabolic…state of renewal.” [8] The growing need to maintain its competitiveness within the international modern art world for large-scale contemporary acquisitions in addition to remaining true to its mission of continued renewal of its six curatorial departments, initiated what would become MoMA’s most ambitious expansion project to date. Over the years of numerous expansion campaigns the museum had grown adjacent to its original building, designed by Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone. With each expansion, the museum grew, but never took on the meaning of a unified whole. In the (e)1996 campaign, it would be essential to find an architect who would not only design an addition to expand on much needed gallery space, but also devise a plan for the creation of a new museum that would bring together all elements of the decades of additions into a single unified whole that would reflect the dynamic vision of the MoMA moving toward the twenty-first century, continuing the mission to exhibit its historic collection of modern art in addition to works by contemporary artists. In (e)1996, the museum acquired the Dorset Hotel, on West 54th Street and an additional several townhouses, adjacent to the museum on both West 53rd and 54th Streets, opening up alternative sites for which to develop additions to be included for the (e)2004 expansion.[4] Once the land was secured for development, the search began for an architect to engage the proposed concept of unifying the existing buildings while expanding its square footage onto the newly acquired parcels of land. From (e)1996 into 1997, the museum selected ten architects as finalists in a competition for the commission to build the new MoMA. After eighteen months, in discussions about the future of MoMA’s architectural statement to the world and review of all finalists, the museum trustees selected the designs of Yoshio Taniguchi of Japan. They based their decision on his ability to produce a museum design that was not a personal piece of architecture, but instead, a design of refined modesty, which complemented their vision of the MoMA as it made its transition into the twenty-first century.

Current Condition:

Yoshio Taniguchi’s design for the MoMA integrates the museum’s mission to experience artwork in an environment that allows the viewer to flow through a structured program of art displayed in a range from contemporary artists to historic artists of the modern art movement. This sequence inverts the museum’s original flow, however places contemporary works at the center through an oversized atrium that allows for the largest works of our time. His desire to create an architecture that recedes from the artwork invites an atmosphere to engage the viewer to the works while at the same time pull away from the architecture itself. “Taniguchi has demonstrated that the two can be intertwined, specifically when the former is designed in such a way as to be a subtle but rich series of sensory experiences that heightens awareness. In such an environment, the architecture does “go away,” leaving, if not nothingness, then almost nothing.”[14]

In response to its specific needs within its context of the mid Manhattan block, Taniguchi designed the museum lobby to connect both the 53rd and 54th Street entrances, opening up the museum at the street level while creating an enlarged dimension of space. In the past, it was noticed that the galleries seemed linear in flow, taking the viewer through a maze of rooms without orientation to the external environment. Taniguchi addresses this issue by opening up the walls of the museum, allowing for natural light to enter the gallery space and creating vistas to the neighborhood surrounding the museum. The atrium with its carved top visually connects the museum to Cesar Pelli’s tower, which in the past was not visible from the museum’s interior.

Taniguchi also accomplishes this sense of vistas to the outside environment by creating dramatic glass curtain walls on the symmetrical East and West wings, which look out onto each other in addition to the sculpture garden. The East wing provides space for the museum’s educational facilities and the West wing houses its gallery spaces. The mirroring of these two structures reflects the museum’s mission of modern art exhibition in an educational atmosphere.

One of the most notable aspects of the Taniguchi design was his handling of the museum’s existing buildings. His goal was to retain and restore the original 53rd Street facades including, the Goodwin and Stone building, Philip Johnson’s East Wing and Cesar Pelli’s tower in an effort to preserve and illustrate the museum’s architectural progression in line with his own West Wing contribution. On the opposite 54th Street façade, Taniguchi created a unified exterior composition of glass, steel, and granite that is consistent with the newer additions while maintaining a sensitivity to the existing structures.

General Assessment:
The designs of Yoshio Taniguchi, MoMA’s (e)1996-2004 expansion accomplishes the original goal to create a new cohesive museum that brings together the architectural elements from its past expansions. The sensitivity to interior space and special attention to flow of movement enhances the viewer’s art experience while paying careful attention to not overcome or interrupt the artwork on display. Alfred H. Barr’s original vision to create a museum space that would exist as an educational platform for the exchange of evolving ideas to engage the viewer with modern art has been restored with the Taniguchi’s (e)2004 expansion. The Museum of Modern Art reopened its doors in (e)2004 featuring a new complex composed of five parts: new gallery spaces with ten-story tower above, renovated Goodwin and Stone Building, Johnson and Pelli additions, an enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, and renovated education and research building. The MoMA’s collection of modern art, including its comprehensive departments of Architecture and Design, Sculpture and Painting, Prints, Illustrations, Photography and Film sets the MoMA apart as a time-honored institution originally founded to educate and enlighten the art world. In addition to its most recent modern architectural expansion, the MoMA continues to exemplify the notion of modernism as it presses forward into its future as an internationally recognized art center sensitive to continued education and the exhibition of modern art, both historic and contemporary. Through the ongoing determined spirit of its founders and the subsequent leaders that have followed in their footsteps, the once considered controversial movement of modern art has developed into an international phenomenon, originally rooted in the Museum of Modern Art.

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