LeftThe new Whitney Museum fronts ontoGansevoort Street, between the HudsonRiver and the High Line – the urbanpark built on a disused elevated spur ofthe 1930s New York Central Railroad.Containing substantially more exhibitionspace than the Whitney’s previous MarcelBreuer-designed home, the new buildingwill show items from the its permanentcollection of 19,000 works of modern andcontemporary American art, as well ashosting temporary exhibitions.

BelowClad in pale blue-grey steel panels, theeight-storey building is distinctlyasymmetrical, stepping down with tiersof terraces and walkways to the east.View from across the Hudson River (ph:Timothy Schenck/Whitney); site model(ph: RPBW/Stefano Goldber/Publifoto).

The Whitney Museum’s move to its newbuilding in Manhattan’s MeatpackingDistrict, designed by the Renzo PianoBuilding Workshop, ends the long saga toexpand the institution. In the early 1980sMichael Graves was asked to design anextension to the Whitney’s 1966 MarcelBreuer building on Madison Avenue, and histhree attempts were followed by similarlyunsuccessful proposals by Rem Koolhaas(2001) and Renzo Piano (2004). This motherof all stalemates, created by local vestedinterests, landmark requirements and siteconstraints, is symptomatic of thecombination of money and preservationismthat guides or stifles development on theUpper East Side.

A breakthrough was finally made in 2004when the city offered the Whitney a newlocation at the end of the High Line, north of the West Village. The move returns theWhitney to its roots; in 1918 GertrudeVanderbilt Whitney and Juliana Forceopened the Whitney Studio Club on West4th street, and in 1931 the first WhitneyMuseum opened in three rowhouses a fewblocks to the south on West 8th Street.

The new 20,000-square-metre building at99 Gansevoort Street fulfils the need formore exhibition space, and adds a muchneeded collection of public, educational andcuratorial spaces that have become soimportant to the operation of contemporarymuseums.

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West Side StoreysThomas Wensing visits Renzo Piano’s new Whitney Museum in Manhattan

PhotosNic Lehoux

Buildings

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AboveMarcel Breuer designed the Whitney’sfirst purpose-built premises on MadisonAvenue in 1966 (ph: Whitney Museum/Jerry L Thompson). Extensions wereplanned by Michael Graves (1987, aboveright), Rem Koolhaas (2001, below left)and Renzo Piano (2004, below right). The building, recently renamed the MetBreuer, will host exhibitions organisedby the Metropolitan Museum of Artfrom March 2016.

LeftThe building is entered via a cantilever-topped ‘largo’, a public space betweenthe street and museum with views tothe Hudson and the High Line entrance.Accessed from the largo, the mainentrance lobby also serves as a free-entryexhibition space.

Level three houses a 170-seat theatrewith double-height views over theHudson River, along with technicalspaces and offices. Levels five, six, seven and eight contain 4650 squaremetres of gallery space, including a 1670 square metre, column-free gallery– New York’s largest – for temporaryexhibitions. The permanent collection is exhibited on levels six and seven,which step back to the west to form 1200 square metres of outdoor terraces.Staff offices, an education centre,conservation laboratories and a libraryreading room are to the north of the coreon levels three to seven, including amulti-use theatre for film, video andperformance on level five. On theuppermost floor is the ‘studio’ galleryand a cafe, toplit by a saw-tooth skylight.

Key

1 Entrance lobby

2 Shop

3 Restaurant

4 Lobby gallery

5 Loading

6 Temporary gallery

7 Outdoor gallery

8 Film and video

Comparison to the Breuer building isinevitable, and a similarity is that the large lifts open directly into the galleries. I was disappointed, however, with theinconspicuous nature of some of the stairsand the fact that they are broken upbetween some floors, a response to post-9/11codes. The central open-tread staircase, cladin prefab panels, abruptly terminates on thefifth floor, and the exterior terrace stairsserve only floors six to eight. The unexcitingand closed fire escape at the west side of thebuilding connects more floors and was, infact, in heavy use when I visited.

9 Store

10 Collection gallery

11 Outdoor gallery

12 Works on paper

13 Conservation centre

14 Special projects

15 Cafe

16 Conference centre

This objective of engaging the public isimmediately apparent when you approachthe Whitney from the city, walking alongGansevoort Street towards what is the moreattractive side of the building. The hulk ofthe structure, clad in bluish-white metalpanels, hovers over a public square andlobby which interact successfully with thecity and the termination of the High Line.The lift and steel structure of the High Lineenter into a dynamic interplay of horizontaland vertical lines with the cantilevered steeldecks and staircases at the top of theWhitney. Internally a spine with lifts andstairs separates the mass of the building intoexhibition spaces to the south and the back-of-house or semi-private areas to the north.This aspect has a somewhat bland, industrialcharacter, presumably in anticipation of afuture extension when the leases on theadjacent warehouses run out.

Gansevoort StreetGansevoort Street

STAIR A

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LEVEL 5EL.64'-5-1/2"

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OUTDOOR GALLERY

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LEVEL 8EL.133'-6"

2

Ground floor

1

2

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6

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10 11

12

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14 15

16

Level 5 plan

Level 6 plan

Level 8 plan

Upon exiting the core either by stair or lift,one is struck by how the large windows tothe east and west, offering long sightlines tothe skylines of New Jersey and Manhattan,anchor the building to its site. The eighthfloor has shed roof skylights, which due tothe fortuitous angle of the street compensatefor the tilt of the Manhattan grid, and givesublime north light. Floors five, six and sevendo not have the advantage of the skylights,but this drawback is made up by largepicture windows and the flexibility of large,column-free spaces.

The scale of the galleries is such that itmade me wonder if high and big is alwaysbetter. Smaller paintings seem to struggleagainst the large backdrops, and works suchas Alexander Calder’s ‘Circus’ certainly feltmore intimate in the previous building. On the other hand, a large painting such asEdward Ruscha’s ‘Large Trademark withEight Spotlights’ clearly benefits from theample wall space and the mix of natural and artificial light.

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AboveUpper-level sculpture and cafe terraces.

RightThe entrance ‘largo’ provides a shelteredpublic space off Gansevoort Street.

Renzo Piano’s buildings usually stand up tothe closest scrutiny, but like manyarchitects, he has suffered the indignity ofpoor execution that characterises the USconstruction industry. Against this backdropit has to be said that the Whitney’s newbuilding is a skilful and mature expressionof Piano’s late work. Unintentionally,however, it is also testament to the fact thatwith New York’s inflexible building codes,and ludicrous zoning laws seeminglydesigned mainly to promote real estatespeculation, it is nearly impossible to buildbuildings in this city that have the quality toendure.

Project team

ArchitectRenzo Piano BuildingWorkshop with CooperRobertson (NYC)StructureRobert Silman AssocsMEP, fire preventionJaros Baum & BollesLightingArupFacade engineerHeintges & AssocsCivil engineerPhillip Habib & AssocsTheatre consultantTheatre Projects

When I sat down on one of the sofas, gazingout to the Jersey shore, my head droppedback on a drywall partition, and for amoment I lamented the absence of the heftand rough tactility of the Breuer building.The fundraising effort for the new Whitneyamassed $760 million, and what you get forthis kind of money in New York City feels attimes like a collage of steel and drywall inneed of snagging. There are poorly executedshadow gaps, stone joints that are aremisaligned with columns, prefab panels thatare non-coplanar and steel panel joints thatare uneven.

AV, acousticsCerami & AssociatesLandscapePiet Oudolf withMathews NielsonConstruction managerTurner ConstructionCladdingJosef GartnerFire glazingVetrotech Saint-GobainSuspended eilingsArmstrongGreen/built-up roofingAmerican Hydrotech