New Home for MAD Nears Completion
An exhibition on ordinary objects will mark the debut of the museum's new home at Columbus Circle.
Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 3/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
New York's Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) will more than triple in size, come September. Designed by Allied Works Architecture, the new 54,000-square-foot facility at 2 Columbus Circle will replace the museum's current location at 40 West 53rd Street.
Head up by principal Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works designed MAD's home for easy way-finding between galleries, views, and an abundance of natural light. The firm punched vertical and horizontal openings in the existing exterior concrete wall to offer an eyeful of the cityscape and Central Park. Galleries weave together vertically via linear cut-outs in the existing floor plates.
With double the amount of exhibition space, the museum will be able to display its entire permanent collection of art objects for the first time since it opened in 1956. The collection includes ceramics, fiber, glass, metal, paper, wood, mixed media, and design.
A special exhibition focusing on commonplace objects will mark the debut of the new building, "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary," on view through March 2009. The thematic exhibition will highlight work from 40 contemporary artists from 17 countries. New commissions and site-specific installations will be created from manufactured and mass-produced objects such as gun triggers, spools of thread, tires, hypodermic needles, dog tags, old eyeglasses, and telephone books.
Renderings courtesy of Allied Works Architecture.
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