The new building for Whitney Museum of American Art is set to open on May 1st. It will house the extensive collection of the institution, which is now moving from its last home in Madison Avenue designed by Marcel Breuer.

Located in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, between the High Line and the Hudson River, Renzo Piano Building Workshop has designed an asymmetrical building, responding to the industrial character of the neighborhood. The upper floors offer open views towards the river on the west facade and the building steps back eastward from the elevated park.

With almost 5000m² of exhibition space, the new building will house the extensive work of this institution, which was running out of space to display their entire collection.

The former headquarters will house since spring 2016 exhibitions programmed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), thanks to an agreement that will last eight years with possibility of extension for a longer period of time.

Description of the project by Renzo Piano Building Workshop

The Whitney Museum is building itself a new home in downtown Manhattan's Meatpacking District. Due to open on May 1st, 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.

Founded in 1930, the Whitney , 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.

Clad in pale blue-grey enamel steel panels, the new, eight-story 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 Museum is entered via a dramatically cantilevered plaza, or '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 - nearly a thousand square feet (100 sq. m) 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.

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.

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 cafè, naturally lit by a skylight system in saw-tooth configuration.

 CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-

Architects.- Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Executive Architect.- Cooper, Robertson & Partners
MEP Engineer.- Jaros, Baum & Bolles
Lighting/Daylighting Engineer.- Ove Arup & Partners
Structural Engineer.- Robert Silman Associates
Construction Manager.- Turner Construction, LLC
Landscape Architect.- Mathews Nielsen
Owner's Rep.- Gardiner & Theobald, Inc.
Client.- The Whitney Museum of American Art
Dates.-2007-2015

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Renzo Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937 to a family of builders. He graduated Milan Polytechnic in 1964 and began to work with experimental light-weight structures and basic shelters. In 1971, he founded the Piano & Rogers studio and, together with Richard Rogers, won the competition for the Centre Pompidou in Paris. From the early 1970s to the 1990s, Piano collaborated with engineer Peter Rice, founding Atelier Piano & Rice in 1977. In 1981, he established the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, with offices today in Genoa, Paris and New York. Renzo Piano has been awarded the highest honors in architecture, including; the Pritzker Prize; RIBA Royal Gold Medal; Medaille d’Or, UIA; Erasmus Prize; and most recently, the Gold Medal of the AIA.

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The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) was established in 1981 by Renzo Piano with offices in Genoa, Italy and Paris, France. The practice has since expanded and now also operates from New York.

RPBW is led by 10 partners, including founder and Pritzker Prize laureate, architect Renzo Piano.

The practice permanently employs about 130 architects together with a further 30 support staff including 3D visualization artists, model makers, archivers, administrative and secretarial staff.

Their staff has a wide experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams on building projects in France, Italy and abroad.

As architects, they are involved in the projects from start to finish. They usually provide full architectural design services and consultancy services during the construction phase. Their design skills extend beyond mere architectural services. Their work also includes interior design services, town planning and urban design services, landscape design services and exhibition design services.

RPBW has successfully undertaken and completed over 140 projects around the world.

Currently, among the main projects in progress are: the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles; the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay; the Paddington Square in London and; the Toronto Courthouse.

Major projects already completed include: the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas; the Kanak Cultural Center in Nouméa, New Caledonia; the Kansaï International Airport Terminal Building in Osaka; the Beyeler Foundation Museum in Basel; the reconstruction of the Potsdamer Platz area in Berlin; the Rome Auditorium; the New York Times Building in New York; the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco; the Chicago Art Institute expansion in Chicago, Illinois; The Shard in London; Columbia University’s Manhattanville development project in New York City; the Harvard museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Intesa Sanpaolo office building in Turin, Italy; the Kimbell Art Museum expansion in Texas; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Valletta City Gate in Malta; the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center in Athens; the Centro Botín in Santander; the New Paris Courthouse and others throughout the world.

Exhibitions of Renzo Piano and RPBW’s works have been held in many cities worldwide, including at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2018.
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Published on: April 28, 2015
Cite: "The new Whitney Museum by Renzo Piano opens its doors" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/new-whitney-museum-renzo-piano-opens-its-doors> ISSN 1139-6415
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