Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer’s iconic granite constructing at 945 Madison Avenue opened in 1966, designed as a part of the Whitney Museum of American Artwork’s relocation and growth. Since then, the hulking presence on New York’s Museum Mile—the stretch of Fifth Avenue on the Higher East Aspect that’s residence to lots of the metropolis’s most distinguished museums—has had a number of identities. After housing the Whitney for many years, it grew to become the Met Breuer in 2016. Most lately, the Breuer Constructing hosted works from the Frick Assortment throughout that establishment’s just-completed five-year renovation.
Two years in the past, Sotheby’s introduced it had bought the Brutalist property from the Whitney, and this fall, the public sale home will lastly take over the area, reworking the previous museum into its New York headquarters. (The Breuer Constructing will substitute Sotheby’s longtime location on York Avenue—a former cigar manufacturing unit turned Kodak warehouse that was reworked into its flagship residence beneath A. Alfred Taubman’s management after the corporate’s 1983 acquisition.) The November 8 opening will coincide with a serious exhibition of recent and up to date artwork, adopted by the public sale home’s fall marquee gross sales throughout the week of November 17.
In preparation for the transfer, Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron up to date the enduring constructing to accommodate public sale rooms and add state-of-the-art gallery areas. The renovation has been described by the public sale home as a “delicate adaptation and renovation” that preserves the constructing’s architectural significance whereas updating it for public sale home use. CEO Charles Stewart calls it a “reawakening” and “reactivation” that bridges the historic structure of this sculptural landmark with up to date utility.
“We’re privileged to inhabit an architectural masterpiece that has been residence to the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork and the Frick,” mentioned Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s govt vp and chairman of the Americas, in a press release. “Those that knew it in earlier incarnations can be moved by how we’ve reimagined 945 Madison Avenue, preserving the spirit of almost 60 years of acclaimed programming. The Breuer’s design, with its exceptional capability to embrace many kinds and eras of artwork, is very significant for an public sale home.”
Landmark options—together with the bluestone flooring, bush-hammered concrete partitions, trapezoidal “eyelid” home windows and dome-ceiling lights—stay integral to the design, whereas the unique benches and counters within the foyer have been reinterpreted as show vitrines, retaining the spatial format whereas including new performance.
Lighting performs a central position in enhancing the constructing’s architectural qualities and softening its extra cavernous bulk. The transformation additionally features a new restaurant (opening in winter) on the decrease degree designed and operated by the workforce behind Roman and Williams, the agency accountable for the celebrated French-style La Mercerie in SoHo. The exhibitions hosted within the public sale home’s new Breuer Constructing headquarters will stay free and open to the general public.
