Expanded MoMA: Chairs Among the Paintings
The recently completed expansion of New York’s Museum of Modern Art was the fourth extension since the institution completed its pioneering Modernist structure by Edward Durell Stone and Philip Goodwin in 1939. Additions have been designed by such notables as Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, and Yoshio Taniguchi, none of them among those architects’ greatest works, except for the Johnson-designed sculpture garden, a major achievement for both the designer and the museum. The latest growth spurt has inspired the expected torrent of press coverage, much of it questioning the outcome of this of this effort. Wasn’t the museum already too big? Were its expansion plans worth the demolition of the small-scaled but elegant Folk Art museum next door by architects Williams and Tsien, recent winners of the international Praemium Imperiale (officeinsight, Oct. 21, 2019)? Did the expansion have to be funded by erecting yet another 1,000-foot-plus condo tower above the museum’s …
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