New York, NY—We propose a new museum type for the New Museum: a dynamic hybrid between a museum of fixed movement process and one of neutral flexibility. These historic typologies, incommensurable and mutually exclusive, required an architecture that fixed the organizational structures, curatorial possibilities, and spatial character of the institution. Exemplified by the Guggenheim and the (Breuer) Whitney models, respectively, the museums of fixed movement process and neutral flexibility are no longer viable. Our proposal for the New Museum allows the institution itself to change and fluctuate in accordance with the character of its exhibitions. This concept taps into a new paradigm of modularity, one that with equal ease generates spaces for existing exhibition typologies and provides for the deployment of the unforeseen.

The New Museum has the opportunity to configure itself within one typology as a whole or to display a continuous variety reflective of exhibition cycles and artistic and technological innovation. This flexible concept of display can accommodate not only traditional forms of art but also experimentation by both curators and artists.

The museum will occupy a signal position in the cultural revitalization of the Bowery in lower Manhattan. Located at the termination of Prince Street, its public facade announces its position as a vanguard institution and the focal point of the commercial and cultural axis extending from SoHo into the East Village. The facade is conceived as both a spectacular announcement of the New Museum’s presence relative to the neighborhood and a filter to its activities. More than a sign or a window, it is a dynamic programmed zone that displays the movements and activities of people within. Viewed from the interior, it is an integral part of the architectural promenade, a space where the museum connects to the life of the city.

Principals: Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto

Design Team: Rhett Russo, Eva Perez de Vega Steele, Jason Scroggin, Stephan Vary

Interns and assistants: Akira Nakamura, Kenji Nonobe, Aki Eto, Yuzuru Kobayashi, Dong Wook Yang, Josh Mckeown, Jonathan Solomon, Akari Takebayashi, Chris Sullivan

Structural engineer: Mahadev Raman, Markus Schulte, Arup & Partners New York

Mechanical engineer: Mahadev Raman, Markus Schulte, Arup & Partners New York

Associate architect: Peter Guggenheimer