Displaying items by tag: tod williams

The University Museum of Contemporary Art is marking its 40th anniversary with of “40 Years/40 Artists,” featuring the work of artists whose exhibitions at the museum―at crucial moments in their careers―had the effect of opening up dialogue about ideas relevant to contemporary art and society.

The artists include Andy Warhol, Daniel Buren, Joel Shapiro, William Wegman, Dawoud Bey, Miroslaw Balka, Tom Friedman, David Goldblatt, Joel Sternfeld, Jenny Holzer, Kimsooja, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Carrie Mae Weems, as well as architects Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, among many other renowned local, national and international artists.

The American Folk Art Museum announced that it will open an annex for its collection and library in Long Island City, Queens, near the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. The 17,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to open early next year, will provide the museum with extra space for storage and exhibitions.

In 2001, the Folk Art Museum opened its monumental Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-designed building on West 53rd Street in Manhattan. The museum soon fell into financial turmoil and  in 2011, was forced to sell the building to the Museum of Modern Art and move to a smaller location in Lincoln Square. The Museum of Modern Art has since decided to raze the Folk Art Museum’s former home to make way for an upcoming expansion.

Founded in 1961, the American Folk Art Museum is devoted to traditional folk art and contemporary self-taught artists. Its collection includes over 5,000 objects from the 18th century to the present.   

American sculptor Richard Serra has won the the Architectural League of New York’s 2014 President’s Medal. The award is the League’s highest honor and is bestowed, at the discretion of the organization’s President and Board of Directors, on individuals to recognize an extraordinary body of work in architecture, urbanism, art, or design. Recent recipients of the award have included Renzo Piano, Richard Meier, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

Serra is best-known for his large-scale steel sculptures that explore the physical and visual relationships that exist between the viewer, the site, and the work. He has produced a number of site-specific sculptures that engage with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. Serra’s latest work, “East-West/West-East,” is a set of four standing steel plates placed in the middle of the western Qatari desert. It is his second public commission in Qatar.

Serra, who is the first visual artist to win the Architectural League’s President’s Medal, will be given the award on May 6 in New York City.

On Monday, April 14, workers began placing scaffolding and protective netting around the former home of the American Folk Art Museum on West 53rd Street in New York City. Last week, the Museum of Modern Art, which acquired the Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-designed building in 2011 after the Folk Art Museum defaulted on more than $30 million in bond debt, filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a partial demolition. MoMA made the controversial decision to raze the building last April.

Before demolition can begin, the Folk Art Museum’s striking bronze facade must be disassembled and stored. MoMA has made no further decisions about what will happen to the facade beyond its preservation. Demolition of the remaining structure is expected to last through the summer.    

The former Folk Art Museum will be leveled to create space for MoMA's upcoming expansion. The project is being helmed by the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro and will include a renovation of the museum’s main building. The new site will join MoMA’s existing galleries with a forthcoming 82-story residential tower, which will include exhibition space for the museum.

Earlier this year, New York’s Museum of Modern Art announced that it would move forward with an expansion project that involved razing the former home of the American Folk Art Museum. The Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-designed building was acquired by MoMA in 2011 after the Folk Art Museum defaulted on more than $30 million in bond debt. The building sits adjacent to MoMA and earned praise for its bold design when it opened in 2001.

Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA’s director, announced that although the former Folk Art Museum will be demolished, the building’s striking bronze facade will be disassembled and stored. The museum has made no further decisions about what will happen with the facade beyond its preservation. Darcy Miro, the artist who collaborated with Williams and Tsien to design the facade, suggested erecting the bronze panels as a freestanding sculpture at Storm King Art Center, an open-air museum in Mountainville, New York.

MoMA’s expansion is being helmed by the New York-based design studio, Diller Scofidio + Renfro.   

The nonprofit Architectural League of New York is the latest party asking the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider their decision to raze the former home of the American Folk Art Museum. The organization wrote an open letter signed by members of its board of directors to MoMA on Monday, April 22, 2013. Prominent architects such as Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy, and Robert A.M. Stern voiced their support against the demolition of the building, which was designed by notable New York-based architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

The monumental building, which features a sculptural bronze façade, was erected twelve years ago on West 53^rd Street by the American Folk Art Museum. After the institution fell into financial turmoil, the building was sold to MoMA and the Folk Art Museum moved to a smaller location. Now, as plans for an expansion gain steam, MoMA has announced their decision to level the building. Officials justified the ruling by claiming that the Folk Art Museum’s former home didn’t mesh with MoMA’s sleek glass façade and that structure’s location was logistically problematic as it is slightly set back from MoMA’s main building.

The decision to demolish the structure, which has quickly become a Midtown landmark, has been met with a wall of opposition. Last week, a New Haven, CT resident, Robert Bundy, launched a petition against MoMA’s decision and garnered over 2,000 signatures in a matter of days.

As it stands, MoMA expects to begin renovations in 2014 by which time the Folk Art Museum’s former home will be destroyed.

After news spread that New York’s Museum of Modern Art planned to tear down the former home of the American Folk Art Museum on West 53^rd Street in Manhattan, opponents launched a petition asking MoMA officials to reconsider the decision.

The petition was launched by New Haven, CT resident, Robert Bundy, and has accrued over 2,000 signatures. In a letter written to MoMA’s director, Glenn D. Lowry, and the museum’s chief architecture curator, Barry Bergdoll, Bundy asks that MoMA preserve the building rather than raze it, which he claims would be an architectural loss for the city of New York.

The building in debate was designed by notable New York-based architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to house the Folk Art Museum. The project was completed in 2001 but after falling into financial turmoil, the Folk Art Museum decided to sell the building to MoMA and move to a smaller location.

The decision to level the structure, which features a sculptural bronze façade, is part of MoMA’s overarching expansion plans. Officials claim that the former Folk Art Museum building doesn’t mesh well with MoMA’s neighboring sleek, glass façade. The Folk Art building is also set back slightly from MoMA making expansion logistics more complicated.

In Bundy’s letter he writes, “We ask that the Museum of Modern Art reconsider its position and save the former American Folk Art Museum. The destruction of the building will result in MoMA no longer being regarded as a protector and promoter of the arts.” The petition can be found on change.org’s website.

Twelve years ago, the Folk Art Museum erected a monumental flagship building next door to the Museum of Modern Art on West 53^rd Street in Manhattan. In 2011, after a spate of financial troubles, the Folk Art Museum decided to sell the building to MoMA and move to a smaller outpost. Now, the MoMA is planning to demolish the building to make way for an expansion that will connect to a new tower on the other side of the former Folk Art Museum.

The building, which was designed by notable New York-based architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and features a sculptural bronze façade, has become a Midtown landmark in a short amount of time. However, MoMA officials decided that the building didn’t mesh well with the museum’s glass façade; it is also set back further than MoMA’s structure, making expansion logistics difficult.

MoMA’s new 82-story building will be designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and constructed by Hines, a Houston-based company. The new structure will include apartments and about 40,000 square feet of gallery space. The Folk Art Museum’s former space will provide an additional 10,000 square feet of exhibition space. The renovation is expected to begin in 2014 by which time the Folk Art Museum’s former home will be leveled.