The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Cooper Robertson

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior PhotographyThe Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography, FacadeThe Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Image 4 of 36The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior PhotographyThe Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - More Images+ 31

  • Partners In Charge: M.Carroll, E.Trezzani
  • Partner In Charge Cooper Robertson: Scott Newman
  • Design Team: K.Schorn, T.Stewart, S.Ishida, A.Garritano, F.Giacobello, I.Guzman, G.Melinotov, L. Priano, L.Stuart, C. Chabaud, J.Jones, G.Fanara, M.Fleming, D.Piano, J.Pejkovic
  • Cad Operator: M.Ottonello
  • Models: F.Cappellini, F.Terranova, I.Corsaro
  • Mep, Fire Prevention: Jaros Baum & Bolles
  • Facade Engineering: Heintges & Associates
  • Theatre Equipment: Theatre Projects
  • Audiovisual Equipment, Acoustics: Cerami & Associates
  • Landscaping: Piet Oudolf, Mathews Nielson
  • Project Manager Cooper Robertson: Thomas Wittrock
  • Sr Technical Manager Cooper Robertson: Thomas Holzmann
  • Project Architect Cooper Robertson: Greg Weithman
  • Design Team Cooper Robertson: Kieran Trihey, Weifang Lin, Erin Flynn, Christopher Payne, Annalisa Guzzini, Atara Margolies, German Carmona, Jenelle Kelpe, Marlena Lacher, Eric Boorstyn, Jeremy Boon-Bordenave
  • Interiors Cooper Robertson: Lori Weatherly
  • Project Administrator Cooper Robertson: Lauren Weisbrod
  • City: New York
  • Country: United States
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The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography, Cityscape, Windows
© Timothy Schenck

The Whitney Museum is building itself a new home in downtown Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Due to open in 2015, the project will substantially enlarge the Whitney’s exhibition and programming space, enabling the first comprehensive view of the Museum’s growing collection, which today comprises more than 19,000 works of modern and contemporary American art.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography, Windows, Cityscape
© Karin Jobst

Founded in 1930, the Whitney moved to its current Madison Avenue home, designed by Marcel Breuer, in 1966. At the time, its collection numbered some 2,000 pieces of 20th-century American art, so its nearly 100-fold expansion needs space to flourish. The new museum is to be situated in New York’s vibrant Meatpacking District. Fronting onto Gansevoort Street, the site lies between the Hudson and the High Line, Manhattan’s recently completed elevated urban park, built on a disused elevated spur of the 1930s New York Central Railroad.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Image 26 of 36
East-West Section

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Clad in pale blue-grey steel panels, the new, eight-storey building is powerfully asymmetrical, with the bulk of the full-height museum to the west, Hudson-side, with tiers of lighter terraces and glazed walkways stepping down to the High Line, embracing it into the project.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography, Cityscape
© Nic Lehoux
The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Image 31 of 36
Renzo Piano’s Sketch

The Museum is entered via a dramatically cantilevered ‘largo’, a public space that serves as a kind of decompression chamber between street and museum, a shared space, with views to the Hudson and the High Line entrance just a few steps away. Accessed from the ‘largo’, the main entrance lobby also serves as a public gallery – of free-entry exhibition space.

Level three houses a 170-retractible seat theatre with double-height views over the Hudson River, along with technical spaces and offices.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Interior Photography, Facade
© Nic Lehoux

Some 50,000 sq. ft (4 650 sq. m) of gallery space is distributed over levels five, six, seven and eight, the fifth level boasting a 18,000 sq ft (1670 sq. m), column-free gallery – making it the largest open-plan museum gallery in New York City. This gallery is reserved for temporary exhibitions and its expansive volume will enable the display of really large works of contemporary art. The permanent collection is exhibited on two floors, level six and seven. These two floors also step back towards the west to create 13,000 sq ft (1 200 sq. m) of outdoor sculpture terraces.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Image 15 of 36
© Nic Lehoux

Museum offices, education centre, conservation laboratories and library reading room are situated north of the building’s core on levels three to seven, including a multi-use theatre for film, video and performance on level five.

Finally, on the top floor is the ‘studio’ gallery and a café, naturally lit by a skylight system in saw-tooth configuration. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography
© Nic Lehoux
The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop  + Cooper Robertson - Exterior Photography
© Nic Lehoux

Project gallery

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Project location

Address:99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014, USA

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Cooper Robertson" 13 May 2015. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/630574/the-whitney-museum-of-american-art-at-gansevoort-renzo-piano-cooper-robertson> ISSN 0719-8884

© Nic Lehoux

纽约惠特尼博物馆 / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Cooper Robertson

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