GALLERIES
Outdoor gallery spaces are a feature of the Renzo Piano-designed museum
We needed somebody who was experienced in
building in New York - who was really an urbanist
our specifi c program needs. The idea to expand was primarily to be able to present more of the collection, but also to gain dedicated education space, a theatre and the back-of-house facilities that were lacking in our previous building.
Why did you choose to work with Renzo Piano? While interviewing other architects, we asked what their favourite museum building was. Almost every one named the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. We decided that if all these architects – young and old, American and non-American – are citing Renzo Piano as the great museum architect, then we should talk to him. Hiring Piano was the right decision because we needed somebody who was experienced in building in New York, who knew how to build in a dense urban environment – who was really an urbanist. At their best, his buildings put the art fi rst and are not primarily concerned with what the building looks like on the exterior. His buildings are about creating a space for art.
Can you describe the building? The new building includes approximately 50,000 square feet [4,650sqm] of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet [1,200sqm] of outdoor exhibition space and terraces facing the High Line. An expansive gallery for special exhibitions is approximately 18,000 square feet [1,670sqm], making it the largest column- free museum gallery in New York City.
ABOUT THE WHITNEY. Portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1931) by Edward Steichen 52
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The Whitney Museum of American Art was founded in 1930 by artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who wanted to support contemporary American artists. Since 1966, the museum has been situated in a Marcel Breuer- designed building on Madison Avenue, New York. When the Whitney, which has a collection 22,000 works, outgrew the space, Renzo Piano was commissioned to design a new museum for a site in the city’s Meatpacking District. The $422m (£276m, €386m) asymmetrical nine-storey building boasts expansive gallery space and is New York City’s fi rst LEED-Gold certifi ed art museum. The Breuer building is being occupied by the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 2023.
Additional exhibition space includes a lobby gallery (accessible free of charge), two fl oors for the permanent collection and a special exhibitions gallery on the top fl oor. The building also includes an education centre offering state-of-the-art classrooms; a multi-use black box theatre for fi lm, video, and performance with an adjacent outdoor gallery; a 170-seat theatre with stunning views of the Hudson River; and a Works on Paper Study Centre, Conservation Lab, and Library Reading Room. The classrooms, theatre and study centre are all fi rsts for the Whitney. A shop and restaurant on the completely transparent ground-fl oor level contribute to the busy street life of the area. Piano’s design takes a strong and strikingly asymmetrical form – one that responds to the industrial character of the neighbouring loft buildings and overhead railway while asserting a contemporary, sculptural presence. The upper storeys of the building overlook the Hudson River on its west and step back gracefully from the elevated High Line park to its east. Piano wanted pedestrians to identify the
Whitney from the exterior as a museum. From the east and west, the windows of the major exhibition gallery are visible and the astonishing horizontal form of the gallery itself is evident. Walking down the High Line from the north, people will see art on
AM 3 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015
© 2015 THE ESTATE OF EDWARD STEICHEN / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
PHOTO: NIC LEHOUX
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