Rem Koolhaas Tapped To Design New Museum Expansion

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — One of the most respected modern architects has been tapped to design the New Museum's new building.

Rem Koolhaas and his architectural firm OMA will design the second wing of the New Museum, which will be located at 231 Bowery. The contemporary art museum has owned the land since 2008, but work on the new building has been stalled.

Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu will jointly design the building, the New Museum announced on Wednesday. The building, funded by an $85 million capital campaign, will provide an additional 50,000 square feet for the facility, effectively doubling the New Museum’s space. The new building will be used for more gallery space and additional room for new types of programming.

“I’m particularly excited that our first public building in New York City will be for the New Museum, one of the most forward-thinking institutions for which I’ve always had a great affinity,” Koolhaas said in a statement.

“Koolhaas has thought deeply about the identity and landscape of our city going back to his landmark book Delirious New York, published in 1978, a year after the Museum’s founding,” Lisa Phillips, the director of the museum, said in a statement. “Though he is one of the world’s finest architects with a deeply civic and public spirit, this will be his first public building in New York City.”

Image credit: Dean Kaufman / New Museum