It’s been a decade since the New Museum announced that it would be expanding its SANAA-designed building on Manhattan’s Bowery. Now, the project – which is set to double the museum’s exhibition space thanks to a 60,000 sq ft extension designed by OMA – finally has an opening date. The contemporary art museum today announced that it will reopen to the public on 21 March 2026.
‘[The] building on the Bowery signals our redoubled commitment to new art and new ideas, and to the museum as an ever-evolving site for risk-taking, collaboration, and experimentation,’ museum director Lisa Phillips said in a statement.
The New Museum’s OMA expansion gears up for its launch
The OMA expansion, helmed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, designed in collaboration with Corgan (formerly Cooper Robertson), will feature new galleries, a reimagined entrance plaza and new flexible programming space, including studios for artists in residence. The addition will also expand the lobby, which in addition to a larger bookstore and museum shop, will include an art-filled restaurant designed by Shigematsu and operated by the Oberon Group.
Crucially, the redesign will address what was considered by many to be the SANAA building’s Achille’s heel: its confusing and clunky circulation. Before, the museum floors were accessed via a single freight elevator and an ancillary hidden staircase. The OMA addition aims to introduce ‘fluid’ movement throughout the building, via three additional elevators and a stairway in the atrium.
‘I am honoured to be awarded this project in the city perhaps most central to OMA’s philosophy, and am thrilled to work with an institution that deeply values the practices of creative forward-thinkers,’ Shigematsu commented in 2017, when OMA was announced as the selected design team. ‘As a Japanese architect, I am very happy to engage in a unique dialogue with SANAA and build alongside one of their seminal works.’
The completed New Museum will be the only building in the world combining the work of two living Pritzker prize-winning architects. It will open with a survey exhibition; new commissions by artists including Tschabalala Self, Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026 winner Klára Hosnedlová and Sarah Lucas; and offer free admission during its opening weekend.
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