Contract - January/February 2016 - 108

INTERIORS AWARDS

Public/Civic
Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Cooper Robertson

Whitney Museum
of American Art

By John Gendall
Photography by
Nic Lehoux

Client
Whitney Museum
of American Art
Location
New York
108

Piano looked beyond the site itself, considering the museum
Long perceived-and designed-as bastions of high culture, many
in relation to a network of public spaces. The building overlooks the
museums have become more outward facing, connecting with their
adjacent High Line, becoming a node at the southern end of the
context. The new home of the Whitney Museum of American Art has
1.5-mile-long park. Then, by shaping the museum's public outdoor
done so convincingly. Since its opening in May 2015, the Whitney has
established itself not only as a major cultural anchor for downtown New areas, which Piano designed in partnership with Matthews Nielsen
Landscape Architects and Piet Oudolf, the Whitney visually connects
York but also as a 21st-century model for the museum as a civic space.
the High Line with Hudson River Park, generating what Newman calls
Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration
"a continuous public realm. The Whitney's new building is inextricably
with Cooper Robertson, the museum includes 50,000 square feet of
connected to its urban setting."
indoor exhibition space, most of which is arrayed in vast column-free
Adjacent to the upper-level galleries and linked by exterior
galleries stacked on the upper floors. The 18,000-square-foot
fifth-floor gallery is the largest column-free gallery in New York. On the staircases and walkways, a series of open-air terraces allow curators to
display art outdoors while doubling as places to engage with expansive
top level, sawtooth skylights allow natural light to evenly filter into a
city views. When viewed from the High Line and various points in the
4,500-square-foot gallery. Wide-plank pine floors recycled from
neighborhood, the building appears active with people walking along
manufacturing facilities soften the interiors, and four elevators
designed by artist Richard Artschwager shuttle visitors between floors. these terraces and walkways.
From within the galleries, floor-to-ceiling windows frame the
In addition to galleries, the new building, on target to be certified LEED
Hudson River to the west. "Visual connection between the galleries
Gold, also includes the types of spaces that have become increasingly
important to contemporary museums: a 170-seat theater, an education and the city provide a new context for viewing art," Newman says.
Viewing art, after all, is what the $422 million building is meant
center, and an art conservation center.
to accommodate, and the museum does so with far greater flexibility
Even as the Whitney carries out its exhibition program, the
and significantly more square footage than its former Marcel Breuer-
museum has become notable for its design in another, less objective
designed home on the Upper East Side had allowed. The generously
way-namely by distinguishing itself as an important civic destination
proportioned double-height galleries, each a slightly different
where the Meatpacking District meets the West Village and the
dimension, give the museum the chance to let its impressive collection
West Side Highway. Piano emphasizes the museum's public role by
flourish in exhibition. c
consistently referring to its ground plane as a piazza, recalling the
lively public plazas of his native Italy.
"The mass of the building appears to float above the lobby,
creating visual transparency that merges the indoor activities with
the public realm outside," says Scott Newman, a principal at Cooper
Robertson, the New York-based firm that served as the project's
executive architect. Into this ground-level, Piano tucked the lobby,
a gift shop, a freely accessible gallery, and a restaurant, Untitled,
overseen by chef Danny Meyer. The glass curtain wall allows for visual
connectivity between the vibrant activities of the museum's ground
plane and the bustle of the surrounding neighborhood.
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Contract - January/February 2016

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