Archinect - News

Sotheby's purchases Marcel Breuer's Brutalist Whitney for a rumored $100 million

2023-06-01T17:56:00-04:00

Sotheby’s said Thursday that it has purchased the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1966 Brutalist building by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue and will move its headquarters there from York Avenue in 2025. The deal — which Sotheby’s and the Whitney refused to confirm in response to queries from The Times in April — finally resolves the fate of the Breuer building, which has hung in the balance since the Whitney moved down to the meatpacking district in 2015.

The auction house will operate a rotating exhibition space out of the building — in addition to hosting live auctions — beginning in September 2024. There are no plans for the subterranean level restaurant at this time. The Frick Collection, which has been leasing the building since the Met walked away in March of 2020, will officially move back into its $160 million Selldorf Architects-renovated original East 70th Street location in the months prior.

The New York Times reported a source mentioning the deal, which was brokered between the current landlords Whitney Museum and Sotheby's, was worth approximately $100 million. Sotheby's CEO Charles F. Stewart explained to the paper that it was simply a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we couldn’t pass up."

Frick Collection to vacate Marcel Breuer's 945 Madison Avenue building by next year

2023-04-24T17:53:00-04:00

The Frick Collection will vacate its Brutalist temporary home on New York’s Madison Avenue and return to Henry Clay Frick’s historic Fifth Avenue mansion in 2024. [...] The fate of the Breuer building—which was for decades the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art and, following that museum’s relocation to the Meatpacking District, a temporary outpost of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dubbed the Met Breuer—is unknown.

“Our residency at Frick Madison has been rewarding and productive, and we look forward to the remaining months of our time at 945 Madison Avenue, as we continue to gain new insights into our collection by seeing it reframed in this unprecedented way,” the Frick’s director Ian Wardropper said in an announcement.

The museum replaced The Met two years ago following that institution’s own ill-fated five-year run that ended in the spring of 2020. The Frick now expects its return to the original 1 East 70th Street location in March of next year after Selldorf Architects’ contested $160 million refresh. As The Art Newspaper reported, the future tenant (and owner) of 945 Madison currently remains in doubt while its current landlord, the Whitney Museum, looks for answers.

The fate of Marcel Breuer's Frick Madison building could fall into developer hands soon

2021-09-20T19:01:00-04:00

The Breuer building, an architectural icon and the former longtime home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, could soon have a new owner. The Whitney is considering the sale of the building and brokers are compiling lists of potential buyers, according to sources in the art world and real estate. Now the multi-million-dollar question is: If the building is sold, can it be developed?

The brutalist masterpiece know colloquially for its architect Marcel Breuer opened as the new home of the Whitney Museum in 1966. The building exchanged hands in 2015 as the Met expanded past Fifth Avenue for the first time to make room for the collection of billionaire cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder.

Previously on Archinect: Frick Collection opens in Marcel Breuer-designed temporary new home, Frick Madison

The Met Breuer’s ill-fared run ended in March of 2020 before reopening in the spring after a pandemic overhaul led by Selldorf Architects. The new Frick Madison will occupy the current site for the remainder of its lease, which runs through the end of next year.

Frick Collection opens in Marcel Breuer-designed temporary new home, Frick Madison

2021-03-23T18:07:00-04:00

While the Frick Collection's Gilded Age mansion in Manhattan undergoes a $160-million expansion and renovation project led by Selldorf Architects with Executive Architect Beyer Blinder Belle, highlights of the substantial art collection have found a temporary new home for the next two years inside Marcel Breuer's iconic Brutalist building on Madison Avenue.

The modernist Marcel Breuer building on Madison Ave just opened as the temporary art venue, Frick Madison. Photo: Joe Coscia.

The selection of works shown, and freshly juxtaposed within its unexpected new setting at Frick Madison, includes treasured paintings and sculptures by Bellini, Clodion, Gainsborough, Goya, Holbein, Houdon, Ingres, Piero della Francesca, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, Whistler, and many others.

Frick Madison exterior. Photo: Joe Coscia

"The Frick has created a sequence of gallery spaces at Frick Madison that reflects the museum’s traditional emphasis on intimate encounters with both art and a...

Met Breuer to serve as temporary installation site for Frick Collection

2020-06-24T17:26:00-04:00

The Met Breuer building in New York City is set to become the new temporary home to the Frick Collection as the Frick's flagship facilities undergo an expansion and renovation led by Selldorf Architects.

The Marcel Breuer-designed Brutalist style building was the original home of the Whitney Museum, which opened in 1930 and decamped to new Renzo Piano Building Workshop-designed facilities in 2015. Since then, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been using the building to display a collection of Modern art and architecture exhibitions. The Breuer site was slated to run an exhibition of the works of Gerhard Richter through the summer, but the exhibition closed prematurely in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Artnet reports.

Rendering showing proposed expansion of Frick Collection facilities. Image courtesy of Selldorf Architects.

The hotly debated $160 million Frick expansion project received a green light to move ahead in March. The project will bring 27,000 square feet of new s...

New York City's big art switcheroo involves The Met, The Frick, The Whitney, and a certain Marcel Breuer building

2018-09-21T19:01:00-04:00

Henry Clay Frick’s venerable Old Master paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and porcelain seem destined for a change of scene. In an unusual game of musical chairs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Frick Collection announced today (21 September) that the Met will vacate the Brutalist Breuer building on Madison Avenue in 2020. Its departure will make way for the Frick to move in late that year while its mansion undergoes a renovation and expansion five blocks away.

Click here to catch up with Archinect's coverage of the not entirely undramatic Frick Collection expansion saga.

Frick Collection expansion clears NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission hurdle

2018-06-27T14:03:00-04:00

In a major victory for the Frick Collection, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the museum’s latest plan to expand and renovate its 1914 Gilded Age mansion — the institution’s fourth such attempt to gain more space for its exhibitions and public programs. [...] Some critics were disappointed by Tuesday’s vote. Theodore Grunewald, a preservationist, called it “a vote for blandness.”

The approved proposal represented a revised version of the Frick Collection expansion scheme, taking into consideration concerns brought forward by the Stop Irresponsible Frick Development preservationist group at an impassioned four-hour public hearing in May.

The expansion plans were designed by Selldorf Architects with Executive Architect Beyer Blinder Belle.

Selldorf Architects' Frick Collection expansion design faces resistance

2018-05-31T14:27:00-04:00

At an impassioned four-hour public hearing [...] by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), around 50 members of the public, as well as Selldorf, the Frick’s director Ian Wardropper and members of the commission debated the proposed $160m Annabelle Selldorf Architects-designed expansion and renovation of the Frick Collection in New York. The LPC remains undecided on the project, which is due to break ground in 2020 [...].

"Many of the strongest criticisms throughout the hearing, particularly on this multi-storey library extension, came from local residents, although the neighbourhood speakers overall seemed split on the project," The Art Newspaper reports.

Take a closer look at the expansion scheme, designed by Selldorf Architects with Executive Architect Beyer Blinder Belle, which was unveiled by the Frick Collection last month.

The Frick Collection unveils Selldorf Architects' expansion scheme

2018-04-05T15:03:00-04:00

After a rough start, The Frick Collection unveiled their new expansion design by Selldorf Architects, who was appointed for the renovation job in 2016. Currently slated for a 2020 groundbreaking, the project is the Frick's first comprehensive upgrade to its buildings since they opened to the public in 1935.

Elevation of The Frick Collection showing current and proposed views from 70th Street; Courtesy Selldorf Architects

Designed with Executive Architect Beyer Blinder Belle, Selldorf Architects' scheme adds subtle expansions that address the Frick's programmatic needs, while largely preserving the museum's original aesthetic (watch closely in the GIF above) and its intimate visitor experience. The project comprises approximately 60,000 sq.ft. of repurposed space and 27,000 sq.ft. of new construction.

The Frick Collection Reception Hall looking east towards 70th Street Garden; Courtesy of Selldorf Architects

The Frick Collection Reception Hall; Courtesy Selldorf Architects.

A series of ...

After rocky start, Frick Collection selects Selldorf Architects to take on renovation

2016-10-21T12:31:00-04:00

“She’s somebody who has a clear vision of respect for historical buildings but at the same time has a clean, elegant, modernist aesthetic that is very much about welcoming visitors today,” said Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s director. In coming up with a new design, Ms. Selldorf has been charged with improving circulation in the Frick’s galleries, library and public spaces, while maintaining the museum’s existing footprint and preserving its jewel-box character.

Prior plans for the museum's addition (designed by Davis Brody Bond) were dropped by the Frick in June of last year, partially due to a letter of protest written on behalf of 51 artists and architects. This past March, the Frick put forward an RFQ for a new revision plan, and now that Selldorf has been selected, designs will be unveiled in 2017.

"It’s about enhancing the visitor’s experience and making it utterly seamless, so that it doesn’t harm any of the existing experience that people cherish, myself included,” Ms. Selldorf told the Times, speaking to the delicacies of renovating the late Gilded Age mansion's galleries, library and public spaces.

Frick Collection puts forward RFQ to invited architecture firms in new revision plan

2016-03-31T20:53:00-04:00

With The Frick Collection’s garden saved, the museum is moving forward with a new preservationist-friendly plan for expansion...The Frick Collection, looking to realize a revised expansion for the institution, has put forward a request for qualifications to a chosen group of architectural firms. The Frick plans to announce its selected finalist later this year, and plans to reveal designs in 2017.

Museum director Ian Wardropper tells The New York Times that 20 firms have been invited to submit RFQs.

Previously on Archinect:

Frick Collection drops controversial expansion plan

Leading artists call to action against the Frick expansion plans

Frick Collection drops controversial expansion plan

2015-06-04T13:02:00-04:00

The Frick Collection has yielded. Facing a groundswell of opposition to a proposed renovation that would have eliminated a gated garden to make way for a six-story addition, the museum — long admired for its intimate scale — has decided to abandon those plans and start over from scratch. [...] With the proposed renovation, designed by Davis Brody Bond, the Frick, on East 70th Street in Manhattan, had sought to increase its exhibition space [...].

Previously: Leading artists call to action against the Frick expansion plans

Leading artists call to action against the Frick expansion plans

2015-05-06T18:58:00-04:00

While the museum describes the 42,000-square-foot addition as something that would “further fulfill Henry Clay Frick’s long-standing vision to offer public access to its works of art," others, including a group of 51 prominent artists and architects — Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman [...] among them — think it would undermine exactly what they love about the place. Under the banner of Unite to Save the Frick, this group sent a letter to the city, copied to the museum, expressing their displeasure.

Here's the letter that Unite to Save the Frick sent to NYC leaders today:

May 6, 2015

Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chair Srinivasan:

The residential scale of the Frick Collection exerts a special power over those who walk its halls. To have visitors experience the feeling of living with art was the intention of founder Henry Clay Frick as he envisioned his personal residence being opened to the public. Up until now, the Frick’s fidelity to its founder’s vision of a “house museum” has been laudable. Those of us in the art world who cherish the unique and tranquil ambiance offered by the Frick are urging the Frick to withdraw its proposed plan and consider alternative methods of expansion that would preserve the character essential to its appeal.

As professionals working in the art world (sculptors, painters, critics, journalists, dealers, gallerists, financiers, and more), we strongly believe that the Frick’s effectiveness as a display space lies in its intimacy. Viewing highlights of the co...