The galleries devoted to the growing holdings of modern and contemporary artworks at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) will be undergoing a revamp, following a scheme, selected in 2022, by the Mexican architect Frida Escobedo. The first images of her design have now been unveiled.

The new Tang Wing is located at the southwest corner of the 21-building museum complex, occupying the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing and doubling the number of halls showing art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The renovation area keeps within the building’s existing footprint and does not exceed the original height of the 1880 wing at the center of the museum.

In the project, the five-story construction presents a play of setbacks, opening up with terraces and vegetation in the top floors. Funded mainly by Oscar L. Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang, the extension and remodeling of the existing wing are given a lattice-like limestone skin, incorporating glazed openings.

The Escobedo design draws from Roche Dinkeloo’s 1971 masterplan for the MET – with its combination of solid volumes and voids – and from the varying architectural styles of the rest of the museum. It addressed trhe current building’s accessibility, sustainability, and infrastructure needs with the aim of reducing energy consumption, minimizing solar gain, and maximizing natural light in the galleries. Connected to the rest of the museum campus, the project also makes landscaping improvements on the ground floor.

Inside, the exhibition rooms flow into one another, adapting to show large installations (with ceilings rising to almost 7 meters) close to smaller works in more intimate spaces.

Now begins an 18-month process of obtaining the approvals required for construction to begin in 2026 and be completed in 2030.

Imágenes de Filippo Bolognese