On the Bowery in New York, OMA completes its first cultural institution in the city — a 120,000 square foot addition to the SANAA-designed New Museum that doubles its programme and opens a new public plaza at Prince Street.
The new building acknowledges a changing role for museums, beyond their function as producers of exhibitions. "The New Museum is an incubator for new cultural perspectives and production, and the expansion aims to embody that attitude of openness," says Shohei Shigematsu, Partner-in-Charge. "Imagined as a highly connected yet distinct counterpart to the existing museum's verticality and solidity, the new building will offer horizontally expansive galleries for curatorial variety, open vertical circulation, and a diversity of spaces for gathering, exchange, and creation."
The building's facade reveals the circulation and slices of activity taking place within its flexible interior, exposing them to the street. The expansion creates an outdoor plaza at the intersection of the Bowery and Prince Street — a gesture that invites the public to enter and also acts as a gathering point. The result is what OMA calls "an extroverted museum, one that is an extension of a continuous city and that participates in its public life."
The expanded footprint doubles the museum's gallery space and introduces new venues for public programmes, including an enlarged seventh-floor Sky Room, a new 74-seat Forum, a dedicated artist-in-residence studio, and a home for the museum's cultural incubator NEW INC. On the ground level, an enlarged lobby, expanded bookstore, and full-service restaurant by the Oberon Group complete the public offering.
"Marking our first public building in New York City, the project with the New Museum is especially meaningful," says Rem Koolhaas. "Building on past collaborations with Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, it has been a privilege to engage in dialogue with their original building, one of the most resonant works of architecture in the city." The completed project stands as both a continuation and an expansion of that legacy — a museum that has outgrown its walls and decided to meet the street.
