New Museum Announces Further Expansion with New OMA-Designed Building at 231 Bowery

On the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, the New Museum is pulling out the stops. Phase one being underway already – the expansion of two new gallery spaces next door at 231 Bowery – the institution just announced the next phase.

A new building on the same site, designed by architecture firm OMA, Rem Koolhaas, and Shohei Shigematsu. The structure currently standing at 231 Bowery will be leveled for something new, with ground break slated for 2019. The entire expansion project is funded by an $85 million capital campaign.

Below is the copy from the press release:

OMA will design a new building on the adjacent property at 231 Bowery that the Museum purchased in 2008. The new structure will complement and respect the integrity of the Museum’s flagship SANAA building as a singular, critically acclaimed work of architecture. The expansion, first announced in May 2016, will double the Museum’s footprint on the Bowery, providing an additional 50,000 square feet for additional galleries, improved public circulation, and flexible space for the institution’s continued exploration of new platforms and programs. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2019.

“OMA is a great choice for our next building,” said Lisa Phillips. “Koolhaas has thought deeply about the identity and landscape of our city going back to his landmark book Delirious New York, published in 1978, a year after the Museum’s founding. Though he is one of the world’s finest architects with a deeply civic and public spirit, this will be his first public building in New York City.”