The forthcoming Frida Escobedo-led Tang Wing design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been revealed as a five-story expansion totaling 126,000 square feet and to be completed by 2030 after a $550 million capital campaign.

The new home of the Met’s modern and contemporary art holdings will finally establish a greater congruency with the rest of the museum while increasing existing gallery space by 50 percent and addressing accessibility, infrastructure, and sustainability concerns after years of awkward placement.

Renderings for the design show a staggered, rhythmic sequence of solids and voids rising from a three-floor base to a recessed two-level all season indoor-outdoor terrace. The materials selected include limestone modules and glass in deference to the late Kevin Roche’s contributions to its campus after 1967.

Sunlight is filtered diaphanously from the outside thanks to a celosía-inspired latticed stone facade screen. The new galleries will vary in height from 11 to 22 feet. A new 1,000-square-foot café will be constructed on the fifth floor, and the existing Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden will be reinstated on the fourth-floor terrace while expanding to cover 10,000 square feet in total.

Escobedo describes the Tang Wing as a new "canvas" designed to highlight the museum’s layered architectural heritage. Nelson Byrd Woltz will design the fifth-floor outdoor spaces, taking inspiration from Central Park's layered traditions. Thornton Tomasetti is the structural engineer, while Beyer Blinder Belle serves as the project's executive architect. Meanwhile, the surrounding landscape improvements are being handled by the Central Park Conservancy, in coordination with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, adhering to the original design principles of Frederick Law Olmsted to integrate canopy trees, shrubs, and grassy areas to complement the wing’s architecture.

Circulation is enhanced via a second elevator core, multiple ramps, a buried mechanical space, interstitial circulation hubs, and several new entrances. The design also places windows carefully away from the southern and western exposures so as to mitigate the impact of solar gain while protecting the art from corrosive damage over time.

Escobedo adds the wing is "in New York, yet of the world; it reflects the global nature of this great collection and also draws inspiration from The Met’s unique surroundings. The Met embodies inherent pluralities that should be reflected in its physical spaces. This idea recalls the concept of mondialité, as articulated by Martinican writer Édouard Glissant—a term that advocates for global dialogue without erasing the unique identities of individual cultures."

Construction will begin in 2026. The Met says the project is also targeting 30 to 40 percent participation by Minority- and Women-owned enterprises. Escobedo, who replaced David Chipperfield as the designer in 2022, is notably the first female architect to design a wing in the museum’s 154-year history.