“For a universal museum to fulfill its mandate, it needs to grow,” says Max Hollein, director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, reflecting on the realities of evolving collections and shifting curatorial approaches. That spirit of change has long been built into The Met’s Fifth Avenue home: an architectural palimpsest dating to 1879, its original Gothic Revival edifice absorbed by additions to create the country’s most-visited museum.
Today, Hollein is shepherding The Met’s next chapter with a slate of blockbuster renovation projects, among them updates to existing galleries and the design of a new wing—all within the museum’s current footprint. “We are not moving one more inch into Central Park,” he notes.
Innovating alongside him are a group of firms poised for superstardom. “These are people at the top of their game,” Hollein notes of that roster. “A legacy institution like The Met is also involved in the architectural voices of the time.” Earlier this year, AD joined those design talents on a tour of the museum to preview big changes to come. Meet the visionaries now leaving their mark.…
WHY
When the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing first opened in 1982, it brought much-needed attention to the arts of sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas, until then underrepresented fields of study. Scholarship, thankfully, has evolved and so, too, must architecture. Enter this international practice, selected to update the 40,000-square-foot galleries for the present—and future—moment. “We need to give rightful definition between each continent and among each culture,” says firm founder Kulapat Yantrasast, reflecting on the challenges of addressing so much geography and history. What had been a dimly lit sweep is now uplifted by natural light thanks to the state-of-the-art window wall, updated with fritted and filtered glass to protect sensitive objects. The collection, meanwhile, has been divided into distinct bands, with materials to distinguish each continent. Says Yantrasast, “You want the whole wing to feel integrated but give enough context to each region.” Visitors will see for themselves next year, when the space is set to reopen.
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