Displaying items by tag: cooper hewitt smithsonian design museum

Dutch graphic artist Irma Boom is renowned for designing books whose contents have been filtered through her idiosyncratic view of the world. How fitting, then, that she was asked to design a book for New York’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum as it celebrated its recent renovation of the Carnegie Mansion.

The Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the U.S. exclusively devoted to design, and its vast collection (more than 210,000 objects, spanning 30 centuries) must have served as a near-limitless playground for Boom’s imagination.

In 2008, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (formerly the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum) embarked on a sweeping renovation of its home -- New York City’s landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion. Founded in 1896, the museum has been housed in the massive Georgian structure, brimming with wood-paneled walls, stained glass, and carved ceilings, since 1976. Dedicated to historic and contemporary design, the institution hoped to create a space that better communicated its devotion to design evolution.

On December 12, following a three-year closure, the Cooper Hewitt will unveil its renovated and redesigned home to the public. The project, which cost approximately $91 million to complete, added sixty-percent more exhibition space, allowing the institution to present more of its monumental collection and temporary exhibitions. The revamped space also includes a new shop, casework, and movable displays designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, a new public staircase, a new freight elevator, and a redesigned outdoor garden by Hood Design.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to design. It was founded in 1897 by the Cooper/Hewitt family as part of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of the Science and Art and became a part of the Smithsonian in 1967. The institution has a collection of more than 200,000 items, houses an amazing design library, offers educational programs, and sponsors the National Design Awards. It is the foremost authority on design in the country but was long overdue for a makeover. Later this year, the museum will reopen with a new identity befitting the nation's preeminent repository of good design but their relaunch has already started online with a new website and a tailor-made typeface.