Museum of Arts & Design (New York City, New York)
USA /
New Jersey /
West New York /
New York City, New York /
Columbus Circle, 2
World
/ USA
/ New Jersey
/ West New York
World / United States / New York
museum, 1965_construction
10-story modernist museum building originally completed in 1965. Designed by Edward Durrell Stone as a gallery for the collection of Huntington Hartford, it was renovated (or desecrated, according to many preservationists) in 2008 with a new facade by Allied Works Architecture as the Museum of Arts and Design.
The building is located on its own small, trapezoidal lot bordering Columbus Circle. The original design was a 12-story modernist structure, white marble-clad with Venetian motifs and a curved north façade. It had filigree-like portholes and windows that ran along an upper loggia at its top floors. By 1969, the Gallery of Modern Art closed. Fairleigh Dickinson University received 2 Columbus Circle as a gift from Hartford and operated it as the New York Cultural Center, where art exhibitions were sometimes hosted. Six years later, Gulf and Western Industries purchased 2 Columbus Circle. The building went unused until 1980, when Gulf and Western presented 2 Columbus Circle to the City of New York as a gift. The City of New York accepted 2 Columbus Circle and installed the headquarters for the Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Museum of Arts and Design, now at 2 Columbus Circle, was founded in 1956 by the American Craft Council together with philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb, as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. In 1986, it relocated to 40 West 53rd Street and was renamed the American Craft Museum. In 2002 it changed its name again to the Museum of Arts and Design. By the end of renovations in 2008, the museum moved to this building, more than tripling its space.
The redesigned building has the same massing and geometric shape as the original, but has channels carved in its exterior. The original white Vermont Marble has been replaced with a glazed terra-cotta and glass facade. The new facade uses glass bands, or "cuts," rather than conventionally patterned fenestration, across a plane of tiles glazed so as to change color subtly when viewed in different light conditions, and a continuous ribbon of fritted glass zigzags down the building from the upper floors. The top five floors have two bays of darker-grey tiling and windows, with a wide picture window spanning across most of the 2nd floor from the top, where the restaurant is located; these windows and darker tiles form an "H" shape, dipping down one floor lower at the right, from where the zigzag glass cuts begin. There is also a narrow column of similar glass and grey tiles at the west edge of the front facade, extending up to the 5th floor. At the ground floor the central entrance has glass doors below a metal canopy; the rest of the ground floor is lined with tall, narrow windows, behind which some of Edward Durrell Stone's original Venetian piers can be seen.
The west facade is also lined in glass on the ground floor. The upper floors have a bay of grey tiles and windows at the top five floors, just north of center. At the south end there are short, recessed cuts between several of the floors, joined by vertical translucent glass panels at the west edge of the cuts on alternating floors. These cuts wrap around to the west end of the south facade, where they are longer. The ground floor has primarily translucent glass on the south facade, with four service entrances with stainless-steel doors, and a loading dock. Above the loading dock a bay of glass runs up to the 7th floor, where it is topped by another cut that extends to the east edge. The east facade, wider than the west, also has translucent glass at the ground floor. Zig-zag cuts run down the lower floors on the south end, with a wide bay (at the south end) and a narrow bay (in the middle) of windows at the top floors, and another narrow glass bay at the lower floors on the north end, extending down to the ground floor.
The building is located on its own small, trapezoidal lot bordering Columbus Circle. The original design was a 12-story modernist structure, white marble-clad with Venetian motifs and a curved north façade. It had filigree-like portholes and windows that ran along an upper loggia at its top floors. By 1969, the Gallery of Modern Art closed. Fairleigh Dickinson University received 2 Columbus Circle as a gift from Hartford and operated it as the New York Cultural Center, where art exhibitions were sometimes hosted. Six years later, Gulf and Western Industries purchased 2 Columbus Circle. The building went unused until 1980, when Gulf and Western presented 2 Columbus Circle to the City of New York as a gift. The City of New York accepted 2 Columbus Circle and installed the headquarters for the Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Museum of Arts and Design, now at 2 Columbus Circle, was founded in 1956 by the American Craft Council together with philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb, as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. In 1986, it relocated to 40 West 53rd Street and was renamed the American Craft Museum. In 2002 it changed its name again to the Museum of Arts and Design. By the end of renovations in 2008, the museum moved to this building, more than tripling its space.
The redesigned building has the same massing and geometric shape as the original, but has channels carved in its exterior. The original white Vermont Marble has been replaced with a glazed terra-cotta and glass facade. The new facade uses glass bands, or "cuts," rather than conventionally patterned fenestration, across a plane of tiles glazed so as to change color subtly when viewed in different light conditions, and a continuous ribbon of fritted glass zigzags down the building from the upper floors. The top five floors have two bays of darker-grey tiling and windows, with a wide picture window spanning across most of the 2nd floor from the top, where the restaurant is located; these windows and darker tiles form an "H" shape, dipping down one floor lower at the right, from where the zigzag glass cuts begin. There is also a narrow column of similar glass and grey tiles at the west edge of the front facade, extending up to the 5th floor. At the ground floor the central entrance has glass doors below a metal canopy; the rest of the ground floor is lined with tall, narrow windows, behind which some of Edward Durrell Stone's original Venetian piers can be seen.
The west facade is also lined in glass on the ground floor. The upper floors have a bay of grey tiles and windows at the top five floors, just north of center. At the south end there are short, recessed cuts between several of the floors, joined by vertical translucent glass panels at the west edge of the cuts on alternating floors. These cuts wrap around to the west end of the south facade, where they are longer. The ground floor has primarily translucent glass on the south facade, with four service entrances with stainless-steel doors, and a loading dock. Above the loading dock a bay of glass runs up to the 7th floor, where it is topped by another cut that extends to the east edge. The east facade, wider than the west, also has translucent glass at the ground floor. Zig-zag cuts run down the lower floors on the south end, with a wide bay (at the south end) and a narrow bay (in the middle) of windows at the top floors, and another narrow glass bay at the lower floors on the north end, extending down to the ground floor.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Columbus_Circle
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 40°46'2"N 73°58'55"W
- Museum Mile 3.3 km
- Teaneck Creek conservancy 13 km
- Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden 17 km
- Salt Marsh Nature Center 18 km
- Floyd Bennett Field Park 19 km
- Greenbelt Conservancy of Staten Island 23 km
- Untermyer Park & Gardens 24 km
- Greenwood Gardens 28 km
- Frelinghuysen Arboretum 40 km
- Fosterfields Living Historical Farm 45 km
- Columbus Circle 0.1 km
- 59th Street – Columbus Circle Subway Station (1,2,A,B,C,D) 0.1 km
- Deutsche Bank Center 0.2 km
- 250 West 55th Street 0.3 km
- NYCTA Rail Control Center 0.4 km
- Theatre District 0.9 km
- Midtown (North Central) 1.1 km
- Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) 1.2 km
- Manhattan 1.8 km
- Upper West Side 2.2 km
Comments