New Museum opens OMA extension

The New Museum reopened on March 21 with a 60,000-square-foot expansion by Office for Metropolitan Architecture and the inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future.” (newmuseum.org) The addition was designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of Office for Metropolitan Architecture with Cooper Robertson as executive architect, and it sits beside the museum’s 2007 building by SANAA at 235 Bowery. The new structure brings the museum’s total footprint to about 115,277 square feet. (newmuseum.org) (newyorkyimby.com) The museum said the project doubles its exhibition space and adds three gallery floors, a larger bookstore, an 80-seat restaurant, and dedicated space for NEW INC, its cultural incubator. Opening weekend admission was free. (newmuseum.org) (newyorkyimby.com) “New Humans” is the building’s first full-scale exhibition, spread across the museum with more than 150 artists, writers, scientists, architects, and filmmakers. The show traces how technological and social upheaval reshaped ideas of the human body and human identity across the 20th and 21st centuries. (newmuseum.org) The exhibition arrives as museums and galleries use new buildings, annexes, and off-site programs to compete for attention during a crowded art calendar in New York. The New Museum framed the expansion as a larger platform for exhibitions, education, and artist commissions rather than a simple increase in floor area. (newmuseum.org) (culturedmag.com) The project has been years in the making. Office for Metropolitan Architecture first unveiled the scheme in 2017, and Curbed reported this month that the expansion took roughly a decade and cost $82 million. (oma.com) (curbed.com) The new building is organized around aligned galleries and a central atrium stair, a layout meant to connect the old and new structures into what Office for Metropolitan Architecture describes as a horizontal campus. Long-term commissions by artists including Klára Hosnedlová, Sarah Lucas, and Tschabalala Self were installed in and around the building at opening. (oma.com) (newmuseum.org) Early coverage has focused on both the architecture and the programming inside it. The New York Times highlighted Hosnedlová’s installation on the new atrium stair, while Cultured called “New Humans” the exhibition that fully activates the expansion’s new galleries. (nytimes.com) (culturedmag.com) For the New Museum, the opening closes a long construction cycle and resets the institution’s scale on the Bowery. For visitors, the clearest change is immediate: more galleries, more commissions, and a debut show built to fill them. (newmuseum.org)