MOMA looks to the future - the Museum of Modern Art has chosen three finalists in the architectural competition for redesigning the New York, New York museum - Brief Article

"Toward the of recent origin Museum of Modern Art: Sketchbook by means of Ten Architects," on view at MOMA from spring into early summer stirred up unusually intense interest for a small exhibit of works on paper. Since the impending renovation of MOMA was announced late last year, the proces of choosing the architect who will undertake the redesign has movement forwarded rather rapidly through two stages that have reduc the field of 10 initial invitees to 3 finalists [see "Artworld," Mar. '97 and June '97] The exhibition was the first public evidence of an amibitious reconceptualizing of the Museum of fresh Art on the brink of the fresh millennium.

With a hardly any signal exceptions, the notebooked clusters of ideas laid on the outside by the competing post-postmodern architects are overwhelmingly dignified. Geographically and stylistically, the architects are radically diverse: from Switzerland, there is the team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron; from Japan, Yoshio Taniguchi, and Toyo Ito; from the Netherlands, Wiel Arets and Rem Koolhaas; from France, Dominique Perreault; from the United States, there are three native citizens -- Steven Holl plus the team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien -- and the of recent origin York-based, Bernard Tschumi (Switzerland) and Rafael Vinoly (Argentina).

Nearly all of these designers appear to be as impressed by MOMA's ground-breaking history as is the museum itself. The title of the display echoing Le Corbusier's epic 1923 manifesto, is on the other hand one of several signifiers of the museum's have supreme self-confidence. for this reason, the breaks in solemnity evidenced in the proposals submitted by dint of Tschumi, Holl and Koolhaas are perversely inspiring, especially Tschumi's call for a "Modem fresh (or ... Museum of Modem Art)" online, "allowing thousands more visitors per day than any physical museum could comfortably accommodate." (Last year, MOMA's decidedly uninspired Web site drew many more art lover than the actual museum -- roughly 2 million "virtual" visitors v 16 million real ones; this year it's estimated that virtuals will soar to 28 million, dwarfing Tschumi's prophecy.)

It is fact not fancy, however, that actives MOMA to actually embark upon an extraordinary transformation. The purchase last year of the Dorset [i]cabaret[/i] on 54th Street permits a salutary expansion to the north and west, in which galleries might be designed that link rather than separate MOMA's departmental fiefdoms. Certainly this motivation have the appearances to be driving the novel director, Glenn D. Lowry, and many of his third-generation curators [see "Front Page," Feb '97] Lowry dioceses the potential opening up of the linear, claustrophobic galleries imposed by dint of previous regimes as a means of "re-telling" the story of novel art, as well as reviving the true idea of "modern," that embattled boundary .

The fresh story of "modern" must be interdisciplinary. The of advanced age textbook saga saw the hundred moving relentlessly in a straight line toward abstraction. As 2000 approaches, no individual faced with the wide variety of genre mode of expressions and mutating mediums and media that environ us on all sides, can indulge the hoary 53rd way structure much longer. Among Lowry's first acts upon arriving from Toronto was to commission the MOMA Web site. His nearest major act -- coaxing his difficult trustees and colleagues to opt for the futurity rather than the past -- will define his manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding here.

"Sketchbooks" rightly disappointed the craving appetite for the iconic physical solution. The material in this exhibition was frequently hard to decipher, since it was not about visualizing a building, it was about trotting on the outside conceptual smarts. MOMA's staff and trustees wearied a year on the road visiting museums in Paris, London, beholds Angeles and Bilbao. In the extreme point they prudently decided to single out their architect on the basis of universal and process, not models or entirely realized "solutions." Their oft-criticized choice of lesser-known architects in their 50 was equally unbroken None of the initial invitees is a newcomer save to prime-time novels show hosts. The three finalists, Tschumi, Tanaguchi and the Swiss team of Herzog and de Meuron have each designed or finished spectacular building and have other major shoot forwards in the works.

Who is the probable winner in the redesign sweepstakes? All three contender bring more [i]or[/i] less provocative approaches to the table. Herzog and de Meuron are highest in profile and will shortly be well known in art world circles for their remodeling of a power station in London for the Tate. For MOMA, they have in mind a paean to "flatness," with robust solid walls, multiple spatial horizontals and grand stairways. By contrast, Taniguchi invokes history: he wants to interweave more [i]or[/i] less of MOMA's older galleries, untouched, with fresh ones. He sketches long, entire walls -- a living-room spaces now housing the MOMA collection. And he presents a collaged facade that would mix motifs from early modernity to the at hand Tschumi wants a double-sided museum, with entrances one as well as the other on 53rd and 54th roads He would replicate the interior garden upon the roof, and proposes a series of contrasting spaces, from "temporal" site designed for specific aims (readings, performances, small shows) to contemporary artist workshops (sure to be vetoed, I'd wager) to nothing les than a MOMALL, with a linear parade of small shops