Whitney Museum extension breaks ground

The Whitney Museum extension building, located in the Meatpacking district site, adjacent to the southern entrance to the High Line, just broke ground

(Image credit: Renzo Piano)

By Ellie Stathaki

last updated 21 October 2022

If you had the chance to head to the corner of Gansevoort and Washington streets in New York this morning, you were probably part of a moment in architectural history. The site, part of the Meatpacking district and adjacent to the southern entrance to the High Line, is soon going to host the Whitney Museum extension building, which, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, just broke ground.

The groundbreaking ceremony marks the start of works on the 200,000sq ft facility for the Museum, which will include extra space for collection, exhibitions, and education and performing arts programs as well as several more facilities, like a research library, a 170-seat theatre, a restaurant, café and bookstore.

The Pritzker Prize-winner's asymmetrical design will have a strong presence when finished. Sculptural and modern, it will also reflect the area's industrial character, while being set back unobtrusively from the High Line's park. A cantilevered entrance on Gansevoort Street will create a dramatic public plaza that can also be used for art display. Upon completion, the new special exhibition gallery will be the largest column-free museum gallery space in New York City. Further outdoor exhibition space will be provided on four different rooftop levels.

The new building will include 50,000 sq ft of indoor galleries and 13,000 sq ft of rooftop exhibition space, offering considerable breathing space to the original Madison Avenue Whitney's collection and temporary shows, as well as connecting strongly with the area; after all the museum was founded at nearby Greenwich Village, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1930.

Planned to be ready for the public in 2015, the new building will without a doubt be a valuable sibling to the original iconic 1966 Marcel Breuer-designed Whitney building on Madison Avenue. In the meantime, a series of performance and public art events will take place throughout the week.

This is 200,000sq ft f Museum — The 200,000sq ft facility for the Museum, will include extra space for collection, exhibitions, and education and performing arts programs as well as several more facilities, like a research library, a 170-seat theatre, a restaurant, café and bookstore

This is an asymmetrical design. — The Pritzker Prize-winner's asymmetrical design will have a commanding presence

The new building includes 50,000 sq ft of indoor galleries . — The new building includes 50,000 sq ft of indoor galleries and 13,000 sq ft of rooftop exhibition space, which will offer considerable breathing space to the original Madison Avenue Whitney

This is infrastructure layout. — It is planned to be ready for the public in 2015

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).