The New Museum of Contemporary Art

New York, NY

The New Museum for Contemporary Art is New York’s only museum devoted exclusively to contemporary art. In the fall of 2005, The New Museum broke ground on a new $35 Million, 60,000 square foot home at the intersection of the Bowery and Prince Street. The building, designed by SANAA, along with the New York office of Gensler, is comprised of seven floors, each of which is represented as a distinct rectangular box. These are stacked in an off-axis composition, allowing for variety in the size and proportions of each floor, and creating setbacks to be used as open-air terraces and for skylights to illuminate the galleries below. There are three main gallery floors, a floor of offices, and a ground floor café and bookstore, as well as a basement level 200-seat theater and a media lounge. A Penthouse level gathering space has wraparound terraces with views in all directions. Smaller galleries are tucked away throughout the museum. The building is enclosed in opaque zinc finished galvanized steel rain screen, used as a light reflective, nearly glass-like skin. Stuart-Lynn Company worked with SANAA and the Museum from an early stage as cost estimators on the project, providing Design Development and construction document estimates, value engineering and reconciliation.

 

Size: 60,000 sf

Completion: 2007

Architect:
SANAA

 

Engineer:
Arup