OMA's New Museum expansion is not just an extension but a 'counterpart,' says Rem Koolhaas

If you happened to walk down Prince Street in New York’s Nolita neighbourhood these past few years, you probably noticed a new angular structure rising next to the ‘stacked box’ New Museum, completed by Japanese architecture firm SANAA in 2007.

The new tower, designed by OMA in collaboration with Cooper Robertson (now Corgan), was slated to be a separate yet connected extension, doubling the museum’s overall square footage to 120,000 sq ft. After a decade of development, the museum finally reopens this Saturday. It marks OMA’s first cultural project in the city, completed almost five decades after firm founder Rem Koolhaas published his seminal manifesto, Delirious New York.

'It’s not simply an extension, but a complement, a counterpart,' Koolhaas said in a video address (the Pritzker prize-winning architect was unable to attend a media preview due to a construction site injury). ‘We didn’t want to compete with scale. We interpreted the commission as if there were two parts that were finally united and that would form a single entity.’

While the two halves appear diametrically opposed – one formed as offset rectilinear volumes and the other a cut crystal form with oblique setbacks – the spatial flow inside is seamless. The bulk of the expansion comprises four floors of galleries, which host an inaugural show titled 'New Humans: Memories of the Future.' These greatly-expanded exhibition spaces extend across both buildings, with little indication of whether you're entering the new building or the old. There’s flexibility in how these open floor plates can be segmented and programmed, more than the existing building offered. As New Museum president Lisa Phillips put it, the addition can be thought of as an ‘insurance policy for the future.’

A series of carefully-introduced interstitial spaces – an unfolding atrium staircase and a new street-facing plaza – also address the museum’s present and anticipate a future beyond just art-viewing: ‘Museums are the last truly public spaces in our cities,’ OMA New York director Shohei Shigematsu says – platforms for communities to gather and exchange ideas.

The street-facing atrium staircase, for instance, works to connect different groups of visitors, whether they’re browsing the galleries or catching a lecture. As part of the opening exhibition, a fibre artwork by Czech artist Klára Hosnedlová tumbles down four storeys. The three uppermost levels contain artist studios, offices, a 75-seat forum and a set of ‘sky rooms,’ all of which comprise what the museum calls its ‘brain.’

One of OMA’s chief challenges was to telegraph the museum’s range of programming to the street; the SANAA-designed building was a ‘stacked pillar of art,’ Shigematsu explains. ‘We needed to create a sense of transparency to outwardly communicate the diversity of activity taking place here.’

True to practice for OMA, this was achieved through the strategic configuration of the building’s massing. While it might seem like it’s pulling away from its counterpart, it’s actually making way for the plaza, which will soon be home to an installation by English artist Sarah Lucas.

The considered deployment of exterior cladding and glazing was also critical. Nodding to the metal mesh facade next door, Shigematsu and his team opted for a fine mesh laminated in sheets of glass. When sunlight hits the facade during the day, it takes on a metallic quality but one can still look outside from various vantage points and feel connected to the city. ‘During the day it has a monolithic quality and at night it exposes the anatomy of what’s going on inside,’ Shigematsu says. On long term view at the intersection of the old and new facades is the site-specific sculpture titled Art Lovers by Tschabalala Self.

Interior finishes are largely kept to a minimum, but there are moments of excitement. The ground floor restaurant, which will open later this spring, features materials like cork and textured glass. The stairway balustrades are made out of two layers of back-lit metal mesh, painted from behind in the New Museum’s signature green. The colour appears to glow at every turn.

Shigematsu likened the two buildings to a human couple, united yet unique. ‘The two buildings are similar but different,' he says.

The New Museum will open to the public on 21 March, 2026 at 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002