The New York Times, October 21, 1994, p. C24
[Column]
Inside Art
Carol Vogel
Expansion at the Whitney
For the Whitney Museum of American Art,
expansion 90's-style means never having to
tamper with the exterior of its 1966 Marcel
Breuer building.
This summer, the Whitney bought a six-story
brownstone at 33 East 74th Street in Manhattan,
around the corner from the museum, for $3.4
million and announced it would move its library,
archives and offices there from the museum's
fifth floor.
The plan, which is being presented to the mu-
seum's board for final approval on Nov. 9, in-
volves increasing the exhibition space 30 percent
by turning most of the museum's fifth floor into
7,500 square feet of galleries. Since the walls of
the two buildings touch, the museum will break
through and create an interior connection to the
brownstone.
The plan is quite modest compared with the
1985 design by Michael Graves, the Princeton-
based architect, which called for a 134,000-square-
foot addition at a cost of $37.5 million. It would
have provided space for galleries, retail space
and offices, but also would have radically altered
the Breuer exterior.
The new plan is both smaller and much cheap-
er. David A. Ross, the museum's director, esti-
mated the cost of acquiring the new building and
renovating it at $8 million to $10 million. The
money is to come from a capital campaign drive
he said, which will begin officially in about three
years.
A substantial portion of the money has already
been raised, said Gilbert C. Maurer, president of
the Whitney. "This is a doable project," he said.
"The idea is to put back on display much of our
permanent collection, like our Hoppers and
O'Keeffes, so that people can see them again and
again."
Richard Gluckman, a Manhattan-based archi-
tect who has designed SoHo galleries and the
Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, will design
the new galleries and the brownstone renovation.
Mr. Ross said he hoped that work on the
brownstone would begin this winter. "We don't
want to interrupt any of our activities," he said.
"It will be a clean, two-step procedure."
-------------------
END
[Column]
Inside Art
Carol Vogel
Expansion at the Whitney
For the Whitney Museum of American Art,
expansion 90's-style means never having to
tamper with the exterior of its 1966 Marcel
Breuer building.
This summer, the Whitney bought a six-story
brownstone at 33 East 74th Street in Manhattan,
around the corner from the museum, for $3.4
million and announced it would move its library,
archives and offices there from the museum's
fifth floor.
The plan, which is being presented to the mu-
seum's board for final approval on Nov. 9, in-
volves increasing the exhibition space 30 percent
by turning most of the museum's fifth floor into
7,500 square feet of galleries. Since the walls of
the two buildings touch, the museum will break
through and create an interior connection to the
brownstone.
The plan is quite modest compared with the
1985 design by Michael Graves, the Princeton-
based architect, which called for a 134,000-square-
foot addition at a cost of $37.5 million. It would
have provided space for galleries, retail space
and offices, but also would have radically altered
the Breuer exterior.
The new plan is both smaller and much cheap-
er. David A. Ross, the museum's director, esti-
mated the cost of acquiring the new building and
renovating it at $8 million to $10 million. The
money is to come from a capital campaign drive
he said, which will begin officially in about three
years.
A substantial portion of the money has already
been raised, said Gilbert C. Maurer, president of
the Whitney. "This is a doable project," he said.
"The idea is to put back on display much of our
permanent collection, like our Hoppers and
O'Keeffes, so that people can see them again and
again."
Richard Gluckman, a Manhattan-based archi-
tect who has designed SoHo galleries and the
Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, will design
the new galleries and the brownstone renovation.
Mr. Ross said he hoped that work on the
brownstone would begin this winter. "We don't
want to interrupt any of our activities," he said.
"It will be a clean, two-step procedure."
-------------------
END