February 1, 2016

$400M upgrade starting at MoMa

Photo by hibino (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons [enlarge]

Work is slated to begin this week on a three-phase, $400 million renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The museum has been working with the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Gensler is the executive architect.

The general contractor is Turner Construction Co.

About 50,000 square feet of new gallery space will be added and 15,000 square feet of space will be renovated. When it's done, the museum will be 744,000 square feet, which is a 17 percent increase.

First-phase work will involve renovating existing galleries to make them more flexible for installations and special exhibitions.

A staircase that connects the second and third floors in the museum's Lauder building will be extended to the ground floor to improve circulation and access to galleries on the second floor.

The first-phase renovations are scheduled to finish in spring 2017.

The second phase, which begins in mid-2017, will focus on the main lobby and MoMA Design Store, and add a new lobby connected to the galleries on the west end of the campus as well as a new circulation core.

The final phase will be a 50,000-square-foot expansion due to open in 2019 or 2020.

MoMa announced a preliminary design two years ago. A new plan was made public last week.

The museum will remain open throughout construction.

This article includes material from The Associated Press.