A Harlem museum announces $122 million expansion

Studio Museum in Harlem revealed a $122 million expansion on Monday.

The museum announced its plans to construct an entirely new building on West 125th Street in Manhattan to replace the current location in a 1914 building. This new building will better serve the Studio Museum, its exhibits and audiences.

The new location will be more spacious. Indoor public space will increase by about 60 percent. Architect David Adjaye will design the structure expressly for the Studio Museum program.

“With the help of the brilliant David Adjaye, who is giving us the first facility designed expressly for our needs, we will foster the next generation of artists,” said Chief Curator and Director Thelma Golden in a press release. “We will bring the creative achievements of our artists, past and present, to audiences from near and far. And, more than ever, we will heighten the special vibrancy that is synonymous with Harlem.”

Adjaye plans to take architectural cues from brownstones, churches and the sidewalks of Harlem and create a “dynamic, sculptural facade that contrasts strongly with the surrounding commerical buidlings, while being transparent and porous from street level.”

The building will be designed to function as an exhibition gallery, an archive, a workplace for artists and a “living room” for the Harlem community and visitors.

Construction will begin in 2017 and be completed by 2019.