The Frick Collection unveils new design for upgrade and expansion by Selldorf Architects

The Frick Collection returns to try it with a new project by Selldorf Architects, with Beyer Blinder Belle acting as Executive Architect ,to restore and expand its museum on Fifth Avenue. The design preserves and enhances the visitor experience in the museum, library and gardens, provides unprecedented access to the original residence, and creates new facilities for exhibitions, conservation and education

The Frick Collection released a few days ago the design for its expansion and enhancement by Selldorf Architects. Honoring the architectural legacy and unique character of the Frick, the plan provides unprecedented access to the original 1914 home of Henry Clay Frick, preserves the intimate visitor experience and beloved galleries for which the Frick is known, and restores the 70th Street Garden. Conceived to address pressing institutional and programmatic needs, the plan creates critical new resources for permanent collection display and special exhibitions, conservation, education, and public programs, while upgrading visitor amenities and overall accessibility. The project marks the first comprehensive upgrade to the Frick’s buildings since the institution opened to the public more than eighty years ago, in 1935.

Slated to break ground in 2020, the project encompasses approximately 60,000 square feet of repurposed space and 27,000 square feet of new construction. Highlights of the design include:

— Opening to the public a series of intimate rooms on the second floor of the original residence for use as permanent collection galleries. These spaces, together with a new special exhibition area on the museum’s main floor, introduce 30% more room for the presentation of art. The reception hall will also provide direct access to the second floor via a new bank of elevators or an elegant new staircase—a nod to the signature Grand Staircase in the Frick family’s original home, which will also be open to the public for the first time.

— The creation of a dedicated, purpose-built education center, the first in the Frick’s history, and a state-of-the- art auditorium that will better accommodate educational and public programs.

— New amenities and enhancements to better facilitate visitor circulation and ADA-accessibility throughout the Frick, including a passageway providing easy public access between the museum and library for the first time.

— Modernized back-of-house facilities including new conservation laboratories for the museum’s and library’s collections.

— Updated infrastructure to safeguard the Frick’s collection and buildings, improve its energy efficiency, and ensure the long-term preservation of the institution.

The design was developed by Selldorf Architects, with Beyer Blinder Belle acting as Executive Architect. Esteemed garden designer and preservationist Lynden B. Miller will work with the Frick to restore the 70th Street Garden in keeping with the vision of its creator, Russell Page. The construction budget is $160 million.
 

Originally designed by Carrère and Hastings as a private home for Henry Clay Frick, the main building has not undergone a comprehensive upgrade since John Russell Pope transformed and expanded it into a public museum and created a purpose-built structure for the Frick Art Reference Library in 1935 as well as the Frick’s iconic interior Garden Court. The Frick’s holdings, attendance, and public and educational programs have grown appreciably in the past decades, and many of the institution’s critical functions—from the presentation, care, and conservation of its collections, to education programs and basic visitor services—are constrained and retrofitted into inadequate spaces in the century-old former residence. There is also a pressing need to renovate and replace building infrastructure throughout the museum and library, including the deep basement under the 70th Street Garden, upgrading these to contemporary state-of-the art systems.

The design honors the Frick’s history and preserves its unique aesthetic, while providing a natural and seamless flow throughout the Frick’s exhibition galleries, library, and public spaces for visitors and staff alike. The plan respects the current scale and height of the Frick, which comprises the original three-story house by Carrère and Hastings and John Russell Pope’s adjacent seven-story-high library building. Visitors approaching the Frick from Fifth Avenue or 71st Street will notice minimal changes to the exterior. From 70th Street, the back of the library building—which today is visible above the garden and is cluttered by a large, exterior metal fire escape—will be expanded slightly to recapture unused space in a rear service yard behind the garden and enhanced with a new limestone façade. This will create a finished, integrated appearance and complement the facades of the original Frick buildings.