MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA)

Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world, located in Midtown Manhattan, New York, which develops and collects modern art. Set amidst the chaos of the city, MoMA is surrounded by other buildings with various characters. MoMA was the rise of modern art, it fearlessly exhibited the modern era even through all the discouragement, and changed the perspective of people towards a better vision.

HISTORY

·       1929-39

The idea of the museum was formulated by Abby Aldrich Rockfeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Marry Quinn Sullivan, later known as the “The Ladies”. They rented quarters for the Museum and opened it on 7 November 1929.

·       1930s-1940s

Philip Johnson was hired to redesign the Museum’s garden. Throughout time, MoMA has changed its location several times before finding its permanent home.

It was renovated into International Style by modernist architects, Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone.

·       1980-1999

In 1997, the renovation and expansion of the Museum was started by Yoshio Taniguchi and Kohn Pedersen Fox. The new building was surrounded by controversies, some people believed Taniguchi’s design to be an example of Contemporary Architecture, while others were displeased by the aspects of design, such as the flow of space.

·       21^st Century

In 2014, another expansion project was started by the collaboration of firms Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler, the public accessibility was increased by 25%.

ARCHITECTURE

The entrance to the Museum of Modern Art is elegantly placed under the granite and glass façade in Midtown Manhattan. Taniguchi was hired in 1997 to expand the museum and he used Minimal solutions to display a contemporary face to the Modernist roots of the building. Edges playing an important role in the division of spaces, many of which were refined with precise details and many were dissolved. The older building limited each gallery with a single entrance but in the renovation Taniguchi diminished the boundaries by allowing multiple entrance points.

The original International Style was restored including the white marble façade and piano canopy. Philip Johnson’s Sculpture Garden was also renovated and expanded. The garden is the core of the Museum, giving visual connectivity from all the surrounding buildings.

Of the tree blocks, the east and west are two equal volumes framing the garden and the south block has thin columns and opaque glass till the 7^th storey, forming a consistent language.  The glass panels on the exterior façade present a seamless appearance. The main lobby extends from the entrance to the Sculpture Garden creating a porous transition between the interior and the urban context.

  

The space is mainly free of columns, which is accomplished by constructing an armature above the 8^th storey which supports the lower levels. The perforated galleries and stairways allow visitors to view the high-ceilinged space.

With the recent renovation, in collaboration with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler, the expectation of the people will be sky-high for the makeover. The project was initiated to expand the public spaces and galleries to provide greater public accessibility.

  

MoMA is the home base for the modernist movement and a cultural prevalence as a world-class art centre, as is the Paris’ Louvre or London’s National Gallery. Opened in 1939, the walls of MoMA have entertained thousands of visitors while evolving in shape and size, by the world’s most eminent architects. Starting with the footprint of around 109,100 square feet, MoMA is currently, with its latest renovation, 109,100 square feet, spreading its roots to an entire New York City block. The question is, how long will the roots spread?