The Museum of Modem has established a schedule for the new construction and complete renovation of the Museum, which begins this summer with the demolition of the Dorset Hotel. Slated for completion in late 2004 or early 2005, the new building is designed by Taniguchi & Associates, Tokyo, and will include larger, more  flexible galleries for contemporary art; architecturally distinctive galleries for masterpieces of modem art; a center devoted to research and educational endeavors; and the restoration of a number of the Museum' s noteworthy architectural features. A program of major exhibitions is planned throughout the four-year project, including installations at the 11 West 53rd Street galleries through 2002, and at the new Long Island City, Queens facility from 2002 through 2004. 

54th Street facade ©TANIGUCHI, Yoshio. Model, April 2000. The Museum of Modern Art�@

53rd Street facade ©TANIGUCHI, Yoshio. Model, April 2000. The Museum of Modern Art

Thee construction period will begin this month with the gradual demolition of the Dorset Hotel. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden will close to the public in August 2000, to be converted into a staging area for construction when work on the new Museum begins in spring 2001. The Garden will reopen with the new Museum.

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Sculpture Garden

©TANIGUCHI, Yoshio. Model, April 2000. The Museum of Modern Art 

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In Spring 2002, a portion of Museum operations will be transferred to a new facility in Long Island City, a former Swingline factory, located at 45-20 33rd Street, at Queens Boulevard. MoMA inaugurates the new facility with a special installation of masterworks, Collection Highlights, in the summer of 2002, and will continue a temporary program of collection and international loan exhibitions for the remainder of the building project

54th Street facade ©TANIGUCHI, Yoshio. Model, April 2000. The Museum of Modern Art

All exhibitions will revert to midtown Manhattan upon completion of the new building. The project is estimated to increase gallery space from the current 85,000 square feet to approximately 125,000 square feet, and total Museum space from 378,330 square feet to 630,000 square feet at 53rd Street and 140,000 square feet in Long Island City. Highlights of the new Museum include a grand pedestrian boulevard connecting 53rd and 54th Streets which will provide access to all Museum services, including ticketing, information, coat check, retail restaurant, and access to the galleries; a dramatic 30-foot-high lobby space with extensive Garden views to a grand staircase that rises to the second level; galleries surrounding a light- filled atrium that soars 110 feet above street level; and an office complex above the galleries that unites the Museum's staff in a single location. The Long Island City property will remain a permanent part of MoMA's resources, and following the opening of the new Museum, will be converted for use as an art storage and study center facility in Summer 2005. 

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Costs for the entire project, including endowment fund, are estimated at $650 million. As of June 29, 2000, $462 million has been raised through the Mussum's Capital Campaign.

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