$90M Columbus Circle Museum Readies for Opening

NEW YORK CITY-The new 54,000-sf Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle is readying to open to the public in September. The building will increase the museum’s total area and will double the gallery space currently available to the Museum at its present location at 40 W. 53rd St., which measures roughly 17,000 sf.

Total project cost was approximately $90 million. Funding for the project came from a capital campaign–launched in 2003—-which raised $80 million to date in support of the acquisition and redevelopment of the site.

Developed by Brad Cloepfil and his Portland, OR-based firm Allied Works Architecture, the design strategy of the new building is to open up the Museum to views and natural light as well as connections between gallery spaces. Linear cuts in the existing floor plates connect the galleries vertically. According to Allied Works, new vertical and horizontal openings in the existing exterior concrete wall provide views to the City and Central Park, as well as bring natural light into the gallery spaces.