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OMA's New Museum expansion tops out on the Bowery

2024-11-15T10:11:00-05:00

Shohei Shigematsu has provided an update on the newly topped out New Museum expansion designed by OMA with Cooper Robertson. The $89 million project adds 60,000 square feet, effectively doubling the institution’s exhibition spaces while supporting a host of new programmatic inclusions for the public and arts community. OMA expects the new building to debut in 2025 alongside its SANAA-designed neighbor, whose facade's materiality is repeated while fusing laterally with the new structure on its second through fifth floors.

The project was announced in 2019. Image courtesy of OMA and Bloom.

New Museum taps Rem Koolhaas’ OMA to design next phase of Bowery expansion

2017-10-11T12:32:00-04:00

The New Museum Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that OMA’s Rem Koolhaas and Shoehei Shigematsu will design the museum’s new building at 231 Bowery as part of the institution’s expansion. The new structure, purchased by the contemporary art museum in 2008, will link the museum’s Sanaa-designed building and double their footprint on the Bowery, adding 50,000-square-feet of space. OMA’s first public project in New York City, 231 Bowery is expected to break ground in 2019.

First announced last May, the museum’s expansion makes way for more galleries, improved public circulation and flexible space for new programs. In a press release, a member of the museum’s board of trustees, Lisa Phillips, called OMA a “great choice.” She added, “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. Though he is one of the world’s finest architects with a deeply civic and ...

Historic 190 Bowery to be Restored

2015-05-08T16:00:00-04:00

The six-story building was designed by Robert Maynicke and completed in 1899. It served as the offices of Germania Bank (and its future names) until it was sold in 1966 and became a private residence. In 2005, it was designated an individual landmark. Last year, it was purchased by Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty for $55 million. They plan to restore the building and convert it back to office space, with the ground floor for an as yet undetermined retail tenant.

In collaboration with MdeAS Architects, Jørgen Cleemann of the preservation architecture firm Higgins Quasebarth & Partners received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for their restoration plans. They aim to rehabilitate the stained glass, wooden doors, and other features of the building, while preserving the graffiti that ornaments the facade.

John Giorno’s Half-Century on the Bowery

2015-04-03T12:24:00-04:00

222 Bowery is an Italian-inspired palazzo for the beggars.

JULIE EARLE-LEVINE writes about the artist John Giorno’s home for over fifty years in Bowery.

"The address housed New York’s first Y.M.C.A. in the 1880s — in what was then one of the worst neighborhoods in Manhattan, frequented by prostitutes and alcoholics. Much has changed since the poet, performer and painter moved in 53 years ago and created a haven for artists: It’s where Mark Rothko painted the Seagram murals and one of the spots where Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns hung out. Giorno and Andy Warhol were lovers there, from 1962 to 1965; Giorno starred in several of Warhol’s movies, including “Sleep.” William S. Burroughs lived there, too — he moved into the building in 1966, and to “the bunker,” now Giorno’s kitchen and meditation room, in 1975. “I never intended to live my life in this building, but somehow that happened.”

NYC's historic 190 Bowery part of massive buy-up by developer RFR Holdings

2014-09-19T20:25:00-04:00

RFR plans to spend $250 million on Manhattan land purchases, up to $500 million on office building deals and $100 million to $150 million more on retailing properties — all before the end of the year. [...] Perhaps the most under-the-radar purchase was 190 Bowery... Developers have been trying for years to buy the six-story Renaissance Revival structure, which appears abandoned, with blocked-off doorways, boarded-up windows and graffiti covering nearly all of the lower facade.

For some more context on 190 Bowery, check out Wendy Goodman's 2008 profile of the family living there.

Life in the Bowery's 72-room "Bohemian Dream House"

2014-09-19T18:35:00-04:00

190 Bowery is a mystery: a graffiti-covered Gilded Age relic, with a beat-up wooden door that looks like it hasn’t been opened since La Guardia was mayor. [...] With the Bowery Hotel and the New Museum, the Rogan and John Varvatos boutiques, 190 is now an anomaly, not the norm. Why isn’t some developer turning it into luxury condos? Because Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda.

This 2008 piece on 190 Bowery is being published for historical context, on the recent occasion of the property being sold to NYC developer, RFR Holdings.

The New Museum launches new skateboard shaped as the SANAA-designed museum building

2014-07-30T19:03:00-04:00

As a nod to skate culture innovation, the New Museum in New York collaborated with U.S. skateboard manufacturer Chapman Skateboards to create a limited-edition skate deck shaped as the iconic staggered-block building that was designed by Japanese firm SANAA.

Inspired by a New Museum Store window installation by Canyon Castator and Richard Duff from 2012, the Chapman x New Museum skateboard is handcrafted from Canadian Hardrock Maple wood featuring a high-gloss paint mix. Only 150 of the skateboards were produced. Retailed at $125, they're available for purchase at the New Museum store or online.

Check out the video below to see the board in action.

See more skate-related posts here.