MoMA Unveils Redesign, Will Raze Former Folk Art Museum

New York’s Museum of Modern Art released details this week of plans for a sweeping redesign and affirmed that they include demolition of the adjacent former home of the American Folk Art Museum, writes The New York Times.

The 13-year-old Midtown Manhattan building was acquired by MoMA in 2011 in a deal that essentially bailed the Folk Art Museum out of deep debt arising from the project. MoMA announced plans to raze the structure last April but said it would reconsider following an outcry from architects, planners, and preservationists.

The MoMA redesign includes connecting galleries in its current building with new exhibition spaces in a high-rise set to go up on the other side of the former Folk Art Museum. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architectural firm handling the expansion, said that after intensive study it determined the building in between could not be incorporated into the renovation.

“It was just a kind of impossible task,” said Elizabeth Diller, a principal in the firm. “We really, really tried for them,” she added, referring to Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, who designed the Folk Art Museum building and have criticized the demolition.