2 Columbus Circle Fact Sheet
The Museum of Arts & Design is the country’s leading cultural institution dedicated to exploring the creative processes of contemporary artists and designers from around the world. With a distinguished permanent collection of over 2,000 objects, the Museum challenges the boundaries that have traditionally separated fine art, craft, decorative arts, and design. The move from its current home at 53rd Street to the redesigned facility at Columbus Circle allows the Museum to advance its institutional vision and expand its reach to engage visitors, students, families, and artists from New York City and abroad with an increased diversity of programming.
Project Description
The new design will transform the 54,000-square-foot building at Columbus Circle into a dynamic cultural center in one of Manhattan’s most significant public spaces. The new building allows the Museum to dramatically increase its range of offerings to include expanded exhibition programming, artists-in-residence and publicly accessible study collections.
Location
Columbus Circle, New York City
Opening Date
September 2008
Architect
Allied Works Architecture – Portland, OR, and New York, NY
Brad Cloepfil, Principal
Kyle Lommen, Project Architect
Space Breakdown
The new building will increase the total area by threefold and will double the gallery space currently available to the Museum at its present location.
Total area: 54,000 square feet
Total gallery space: 14,000 square feet
Education facilities: 4,400 square feet
Special Features
- Dedicated permanent collection galleries
- Expanded special exhibition gallery space
- Publicly accessible study collections
- Resource center and gallery for contemporary jewelry
- Education center, featuring classrooms for master classes and workshops for students and families
- Three open studios for ongoing artist-in-residence programs
- Renovated 150-seat auditorium and theater
- Restaurant and lounge overlooking the City and Central Park
- Expanded Museum store
Building Design
Allied Works’ design for the Museum’s new home at Columbus Circle will dramatically open up the nearly windowless building to enliven its gallery space with natural light and views of the city. A series of three separate cuts, each one a continuous line fitted with transparent and fritted glass, will weave across the building’s facade to create a light-filled, cantilevered structure. These bands of glass continue inside the building across the floors, ceilings, and walls of each level, to provide a unified sense of space and a visual connection among the galleries.
The building’s façade will be clad with custom-made terracotta tiles finished in a pale iridescent glaze that changes with the time of day and point of view. Through the use of glass and ceramic, two materials that figure prominently in the Museum’s collection, the new building design explores and interprets the craft traditions of the institution’s core mission.
Building Size
- Height: 158 feet (12 floors, including 2 subterranean levels)
- Footprint: 4,770 square feet
Building Materials
Existing Structure: Poured-in-place concrete
New Exterior Cladding:
- 22,000 custom-glazed terracotta tiles, 30” x 6” inches each
- 30”-wide ribbons of insulated glass, both fritted and clear
Total Project Cost
$90 million
Funding
Launched in 2003, the capital campaign has raised $80 million to date in support of the acquisition and redevelopment of the site.
Endowment Campaign
The Museum has also launched a $20-million endowment campaign, which will continue beyond the opening of the building in 2008. Toward that goal, Board President Nanette Laitman has issued a $4-million dollar-to-dollar matching grant and given an additional gift of $5 million. MAD has raised $13 million to date.
Museum Leadership
Jerome A. Chazen, Chairman of the Capital Campaign for 2 Columbus Circle
Barbara Tober, Chairman of the Board
Nanette Laitman, President of the Board
Holly Hotchner, Director
Project Team
Construction Management: F. J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc., New York
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman & Associates
Mechanical Engineer: Arup, New York
Curtain Wall Consultant: R.A. Heintges & Associates, New York