double the gallery space for contemporary art in NYC
New York City‘s beloved New Museum has announced that its long-anticipated, OMA-designed building expansion will be completed in Fall 2025. Designed in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, this 60,000 square-foot addition will mark OMA’s first public building in the city. Alongside the existing SANAA-designed building, the expansion — led by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas — will double the gallery space and improve accessibility and visitor flow with new elevators, an atrium stairway, and a welcoming entrance plaza. The project also introduces new spaces for artist residencies and a purpose-built home for the Museum’s cultural incubator, NEW INC.
rendering of the expanded New Museum, courtesy OMA/bloomimages
A Complementary and Dynamic Vision by oma
The New Museum has always positioned itself as a forward-thinking space for contemporary culture in New York. Since its founding in 1977, the museum has evolved to meet the needs of artists and audiences, expanding its footprint at key moments. ‘The New Museum has always been a future-facing museum — not a place for preserving and recording history, but a place where history is made,’ said Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum. With this latest expansion, the Museum hopes to strengthen its role as a civic resource for New York City’s diverse communities and the international art world.
With its own unique aesthetic, the OMA-designed expansion will stand in dialogue with the existing SANAA-designed building, which has stood as a New York icon since 2007. ‘The New Museum is an incubator for new cultural perspectives and production, and the expansion aims to embody that attitude of openness,’ noted Shohei Shigematsu, OMA Partner. The building will introduce horizontally expansive galleries, contrasted with the existing museum’s verticality, offering spaces for gathering, exchange, and artistic creation. It will also feature transparent elements in its central atrium and terraces, inviting public engagement with the surrounding community.
rendering of the expanded New Museum and public plaza, courtesy OMA
a new chapter for the new museum
The New Museum’s expansion will bring more gallery space along with an elevated experience for visitors. A new atrium stairway will improve circulation between floors while offering views of the surrounding Bowery area. An open-air entrance plaza will serve as an additional venue for public art installations. On the ground floor, the lobby will include an expanded bookstore and a full-service restaurant. On the upper floors, the expansion will house a dedicated artist studio, a forum with seventy-four seats, and an expanded space for NEW INC, further supporting creative entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the seventh-floor Sky Room will double in size, maintaining its panoramic view of downtown Manhattan.
In keeping with the New Museum NYC’s reputation for groundbreaking exhibitions, the inaugural show for the expanded building, titled ‘New Humans: Memories of the Future,’ will bring together the work of more than 150 artists, scientists, and cultural figures. Spanning the entire museum, the exhibition will explore humanity’s evolving relationship with technology and what it means for the future. ‘‘New Humans’ reveals how our most terrifying contemporary concerns are in fact as old as humanity itself,’ said Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director of the New Museum. This exhibition will place contemporary works alongside significant pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries, offering an interdisciplinary view of artists’ visions for humanity in a changing world.
rendering of the expanded New Museum, courtesy OMA/bloomimages
rendering of the expanded New Museum, courtesy OMA/bloomimages
rendering of the expanded New Museum, courtesy OMA/bloomimages
project info:
name: New Museum | @newmuseum
location: 235 Bowery, New York, NY
design architect: OMA | @omanewyork
executive architect: Cooper Robertson | @cooperrobertsonpartners
previous coverage: October 2017, June 2019
completion: Fall 2025
visualization: courtesy OMA, bloomimages | @bloomimages
OMA team
partner in charge: Shohei Shigematsu
partner in collaboration: Rem Koolhaas
associate/project architect: Jake Forster
design lead: Jackie Woon Bae
technical lead: Ninoslav Krgovic
Cooper Robertson team
partner: Erin Flynn
senior associate: Andrew Barwick
project coordinator: New Museum, Dennis Szakacs, Chief Operating Officer
project and cost management: Gardiner and Theobald, Jonathan Andrew, Senior Director, Stephen Becker, Director (PM), Michael J. Day, Associate Director (Cost); PML, Peter Lehrer, President, Scott Weisberg, Executive Vice President & COO
construction manager: F.J. Sciame Construction, Co., Inc, Joseph Mizzi, President and Chief Operating Services Officer, Steven Colletta, Senior Vice President, Thomas Sevchuk, Vice President
structural engineer: ARUP, Matt Jackson, Principal, and Christopher Adams, Senior Structural Engineer
mechanical systems: ARUP, Matt Jackson, Principal, and Neil Muir, Senior Mechanical Engineer
facade: Front, Marc Simmons, Principal, and Jeff Kim, Senior Associate
geotechnical: Langan, Arthur Alzamora, Senior VP, and Mark Gallagher, Senior Principal
civil engineer: Philip Habib & Associates, Philip Habib, President
signage: 2×4, Susan Sellers, Executive Creative Director, and Florian Mews, Design Director; T-Squared Design Studio, Inc., Trisia J. Tomanelli, President; Visual Graphic Systems (VGS), Lorraine Conte, Senior Account Executive
