New York’s Museum of Modern Art reconsiders decision to raze neighbor

New York’s Museum of Modern Art, one of the city’s most popular museums, had plans to raze a nearby building considered to be a classic example of modern, contemporary design.

What were fans of the museum to do?

New Yorkers have asked themselves that question since MoMA announced it would be razing its slight Manhattan neighbor, the building housing the Museum of American Folk Art. The Folk Art building, erected just 12 years ago, is considered one of the finest new buildings in the city, a gem developed by the husband-and-wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

The building is “about the beauty of craft, it has almost a hand-tooled feel to it,” said New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman. “It’s unlike other buildings on the street and around New York. That sense of variety and surprise is part of what makes a street a wonderful place.”

The public outcry against a venerable institution seems to have surprised the board of MoMA.

“Cultural institutions and boards become hermetically sealed,” Kimmelman said. “They listen to each other, persuade themselves of their own plans, and lose touch with the public (they) supposedly serve.”

On Thursday, museum officials announced that they would reconsider their decision to tear down the building. 

The dominant philosophy among cultural institutions now is that “expansion is necessary, good, inevitable.” Kimmelman says that focus on growth and revenue was, in this case, tempered by a very vocal public.

“It is a lesson,” Kimmelman said, “that it’s useful to speak up against very powerful institutions. Once in while, you win.”