For the first time, the prospect of the demolition of the building built in 2001 was announced in early 2013. As Archi.ru already wrote, MoMA, which belongs to the largest and most reputable museums of contemporary art in the world, acquired the former building of the Museum of Folk Art, located between its "campus" from different times buildings and the vacant plot belonging to him, back in 2011. This vacant plot was previously sold by him to the developer Hines for the construction of the Tour de Verre skyscraper designed by Jean Nouvel, with the condition that the lower floors of the tower will be occupied by exhibition halls. But as the project progressed, it became “natural” to incorporate the small TWBTA building into the museum complex, undermining MoMA's plan to create a single, smoothly evolving gallery space across its entire complex. Then the idea arose about the demolition of the "inconvenient" building.
Since the small building of the Museum of Folk Art, which after the sale of its "residence" moved to another premises, is considered one of the most interesting New York buildings of the early 21st century, the threat of its destruction caused a lot of indignant responses from architects and critics. Most of all, the public was outraged by the situation when MoMA, a museum that stores the archives of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, and inscribed its name in the history of architecture with its exhibitions, acted as a barbarian demolishing a valuable building.
In response, the MoMA management commissioned Diller Scofidio + Renfro to conduct a kind of "examination" and propose the best option for expanding the museum - with or without demolition. According to the architects, they only accepted this order because they were allowed to consider all possibilities for preserving the TWBTA hull. However, now, after six months of work, they have come to a disappointing conclusion: it is impossible to adapt the Museum of Folk Art to a new use without completely distorting the idea of its authors, which is certainly unacceptable.
The verdict of the construction - it is planned to be demolished this spring, in order to begin construction of the Nouvel Tower in June 2014 - once again caused outrage among the architectural community. Thus, Frank Gehry emphasized that he especially sympathizes with TWBTA partners Tod Williams and Billy Jian, because the demolished building was their first significant work and it was from him that their successful career began, and called for them to find a large order in New York as moral compensation.
The authors of the doomed building themselves stated that they see in the decision to demolish, among other things, a step towards the final “monotonization” of the urban environment on 53rd Street, since their construction corresponded to a human scale and had an original, “man-made” appearance due to its unusual metal facade … They also recalled that the Museum of Folk Art has long become an important example for teaching architecture students, and its transition into oblivion will be acutely felt by architects, students and researchers.
At the same time, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the authors of the successful renovation of Lincoln Center, proposed a large-scale modernization of the MoMA complex, affecting not only its two new buildings - on the site of the TWBTA building and on the ground floors of the Nouvel tower. According to their plan, the museum will become more open to people: without buying a ticket it will be possible to get to the famous sculpture garden, sculpture gallery, all lobbies, bookstore, etc. The main entrance will become more "welcoming" - with transparent glazing and a new visor, tickets will be sold at 4 points, which will solve the problem of queues, increase the height of the lobbies, and significantly simplify the circulation, which is not very convenient now.
However, the main addition will be two spaces on the site of the demolished Museum of Folk Art. Downstairs there will be Art Bay - a multifunctional hall that can be opened into the city space with the help of a sliding glass wall, and a transformable floor will allow it to be used as an amphitheater for film screenings and performances. Above it will be the Gray Box - a hybrid of a black box auditorium and a "white box" of a typical exhibition gallery.
In total, by 2020, MoMA will have 3,700 m2 of new halls and public spaces, and exhibition space will increase by 30%. This, of course, will delight all art lovers, but do not forget that this museum only in 2004 completed a very expensive and lengthy reconstruction designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. Moreover, it turned out to be not very successful: problems with circulation and an unapproachable appearance are the legacy of Taniguchi. Hopefully, MoMA will be lucky this time, and possible sacrifices - including such a tangible one as the TWBTA construction - will not be in vain.
