Museum van de week - Musée de la semaine - Museum of the week

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA - New York - U.S.A.

Throughout its history, The Museum of Modern Art has used architecture as a vehicle for self-renewal and regeneration. The recently completed building project represents MoMA's most extensive redefinition since its founding seventy-five years ago. The Museum combines new spaces with MoMA's original architecture to dramatically enhance its dynamic collection of modern and contemporary art.

MoMA conducted an extensive worldwide search for an architect who would not simply add on to the Museum's existing architecture, but would be able to transform MoMA's various buildings and additions into a unified whole. Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi won the commission with a design that would, in his own words, "transform MoMA into a bold new museum while maintaining its historical, cultural, and social context."

The 630,000-square-foot Museum has nearly twice the capacity of the former facility. The new six-story David and Peggy Rockefeller Building houses the main collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Taniguchi worked closely with curators to refine his concept into a design that would expertly accommodate the type and scale of works displayed. Spacious galleries for contemporary art are located on the second floor, with more intimately scaled galleries for the collection on the levels above. Expansive, skylit galleries for temporary exhibitions are located on the top floor. MoMA's Film and Media program resumes in the two refurbished Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, located below the lobby level.

In the expanded Museum lobby, Taniguchi takes inspiration from the unique vitality of the streets of midtown Manhattan. This bustling interior promenade connects Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Streets and offers spectacular views of both The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the light-filled Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, which soars 110 feet above street level. The lobby also serves as the Museum's "information center," with multiple ticket counters; information about membership, exhibitions, and programs; and access to the Museum's theaters, restaurant, stores, and garden.

Masterworks of modern sculpture, seasonal plantings, and reflecting pools once again welcome visitors to the beloved Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which Taniguchi identified as "perhaps the most distinctive single element of the Museum today." The architect preserved Philip Johnson's original 1953 design and re-established the garden's southern terrace to create an elegant outdoor patio for The Modern, the Museum's new fine-dining restaurant.

The opening of the eight-story Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building in November 2006 marked the completion of the Museum's expansion project. Offering five times more space for educational and research activities, the Cullman Building houses the expanded Library and Archives;the Edward John Noble Education Center, featuring state-of-the art classrooms; three theaters, including the 121-seat Celeste Bartos Theater; curatorial study centers for the departments of Architecture and Design, Painting and Sculpture, Film, and Media; an entrance for school groups; and a lobby with magnificent views of the Sculpture Garden.

With his design for The Museum of Modern Art, Taniguchi has demonstrated that architectural expression and the proper environment for looking at art can be brilliantly intertwined. The result, in the architect's own words, is "an ideal environment for art and people [created] through the imaginative and disciplined use of light, materials, and space."

Website: http://www.moma.org/index.html