oma . render: © OMA/bloomimages.de . photos: © FIELD CONDITION
Updated scheme and some new pictures by FIELD CONDITION of the New Museum expansion in Manhattan in progress as it is announced that the new 60,000 sq ft building designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson will open in fall 2025.
Founded in 1977 in a temporary space on Hudson Street, the New Museum has experimented and evolved since its founding as a hub for new art and new ideas,expanding its footprint at key moments in its history to better serve artists and the public. Its OMA-designed expansion will complement the New Museum’s existing SANAA-designed flagship building on the Bowery at Prince Street while doubling the Museum’s gallery space; improving visitor flow through the addition of three elevators, an atrium stair, and an entrance plaza; creating new venues for artist residencies and public programs; and establishing a purpose-built home for the Museum’s cultural incubator NEW INC, among many other new and expanded features, marking a transformative moment for the Museum and the city.
Complementing the New Museum’s existing architecture, the OMA-designed expansion will appear distinct on the outside while being seamlessly integrated on the inside. The new seven-story building will double the Museum’s gallery space, aligning ceiling heights on the second, third, and fourth floors for uninterrupted connectivity across both buildings. The OMA design will improve vertical circulation for visitors through the addition of an atrium stairway, which will offer views of the surrounding neighborhood and the opportunity for site-specific art installations, as well as three additional elevators, two of which will be dedicated to gallery access.
On the ground level, the Museum’s enlarged lobby will feature an expanded bookstore as well as a full-service restaurant, while just outside a new entrance plaza will create an open-air venue for public art installations at the terminus of Bowery and Prince Street. On the Museum’s upper floors, the new building will include a dedicated studio for artists-in-residence, a 74-seat forum, and a purpose-built home for NEW INC, the first museum-born cultural incubator, which will equip its annual cohort of 120+ creative entrepreneurs with collaborative working spaces and top-of-line production facilities.
The New Museum’s seventh floor Sky Room will double in size while retaining its panoramic views of downtown Manhattan, and the expanded building will include three additional upper-floor terraces overlooking the Bowery. On the exterior, laminated glass with metal mesh will provide a simple, unified façade by using materials that recall and complement the original SANAA building while allowing for a higher degree of transparency.
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