The Whitney Museum of American Art has shared news of a recently completed conversion project from Johnston Marklee in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

The former studio and home of famed New York School painter Roy Lichtenstein at 741/745 Washington Street is now the new permanent home for the Whitney’s 55-year-old Independent Study Program (ISP), which counts Donald Judd and Jenny Holzer among its many alumni. 

A new third level was added to the existing structure to accommodate the year-round slate of activities, creating an 11,000-square-foot space. The building also doubles as a host for the museum’s Education department in the summer when the ISP is out of session.

“Thanks to Roy, this building has been the site for artistic and intellectual endeavors, both for himself and for the people who have long gathered here. I can’t think of a more meaningful use for the studio than for the Whitney to carry his legacy far into the future, building on and expanding the role of the foundation in supporting contemporary art and artists,” Lichtenstein’s widow Dorothy, who donated the apartment, said in a statement.

Working inside the shell of the original metalworking shop structure from 1912, Johnston Marklee was able to create a series of 15 individual studio spaces, a seminar room, study areas, and a third-floor studio for artists-in-residence that was added through the construction. 

Holdovers from its past use, including a chandelier and rigging system used by Lichtenstein to hang his paintings, were retained on the first floor in order to receive approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The renovation includes a new communal rooftop garden space with the artist’s 1996/2009 Garden Brushstroke serving as a centerpiece for its inhabitants.

“To help create a permanent home for the Whitney Independent Study Program in the former home and studio of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein has been an honor,” founders Sharon Johnston Mark Lee explained. “Each floor of the building has been transformed to serve different needs for the new community of artists and thinkers.”

“To have a permanent space where artists, curators, and critics can gather and create, discuss and research together, in Manhattan, in such close proximity to the Whitney and other cultural institutions, is an incredible, transformative moment for the ISP,” Gregg Bordowitz, the director of the Independent Study Program, added finally.