New Guggenheim Plan for NYC - Guggenheim Museum plans new Lower Manhattan facility in New York City - Brief Article

The Guggenheim Museum has mov a pace closer to realizing its expansionist dreams in its hold backyard. In April, the museum unveiled plans to build a spectacular of recent origin Lower Manhattan facility. A small exhibition of preliminary designs and designs by Frank Gehry, architect of the extravagant Guggenheim Bilbao, is upon view (along with economic impact statistics) for an reach outed period at its original Frank Lloyd Wright building.

The propos site is upon three East River piers near the Financial District. sum of two units years ago, word got without that the museum was drawing up building plans for a site upon the Hudson near TriBeCa [see "Front Page," Jan. '99] smooth though the museum had not officially approached the city with its idea. When that cast fell through, partially due to avows from local residents, the city tendered this new location, though the commitment is through no means firm.

With its undulating titanium-clad exterior, the propos Manhattan building has a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of in common with its Basque predecessor, on the other hand Gehry promises that this will be "startlingly different" from Bilbao. The large archetype resembles a jumble of foil "wrappers," to use Gehry's description. The forms will appear to float a certain quantity of 70 or 80 feet above the river with the help of six immense square concrete-and-steel pylons. Gehry is consulting with Dutch engineers who in their geographical division routinely drill through soft, shifting turf to anchor foundations in bedrock.

The massive fresh structure would contain some 52000 square feet above 200,000 of t which would be for exhibitions. It has a throwed overall price tag of $900 million--$500 million for construction take away froms plus a $400-million endowment. The Guggenheim envisions using 75000 square feet of the novel facility to show its permanent postwar collection, as well as temporary exhibits from that period. The uptown location would display portions of the permanent prewar collection and clinch special exhibitions of art from the Impressionist period from one side the early 20th century.

The area underneath the hovering arrangement would provide about 325,000 square feet of mixed-use render free of access space suited to such amenities as a promenade or skating rink; it would also afford access to the river for ferry service to Governor's Island, where the museum might establish a plastic art park.

In conjunction with the Guggenheim's announcement, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced a preliminary agreement with the museum, contingent on the construction of the facility, by the agency of which the museum would receive more than 100 of the artist's major paintings and statuarys as well as a comprehensive selection of his drawings and photographs. Parts of the collection would be displayed upon a rotating basis in a 12,000-square-foot gallery. The museum would also be abiding-place to Rauschenberg's archives, a research and education center and the administrative offices of his foundation.

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