Designs for Downtown/New York@Arch

The following slides are computer renderings of Renzo Piano Building Workshop proposal for the downtown annex of the Whitney Museum.

Nicolai Ouroussoff writes: Optimism is in the air again at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has just released a preliminary design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano for its proposed satellite museum downtown. For more than 20 years the Whitney has been unveiling sunny expansion plans for its Marcel Breuer home on Madison Avenue, only to have them crash against the reality of neighborhood politics. With its decision to build a second museum in the meatpacking district, the Whitney seems to have found its bearings.

Photo: Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners

Mr. Piano’s project for a site on Gansevoort Street, west of Washington Street, is a striking departure from the ethereal glass creations that have made him a favorite of the art-world cognoscenti. Its bold chiseled form won’t appeal to those who prefer architecture to be unobtrusive.

Photo: Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners

Rising among the derelict warehouses and hip boutiques of the rapidly changing neighborhood, the museum’s monumental exterior forms are conceived as a barrier against the area’s increasingly amusement-park atmosphere. It makes a powerful statement about the encroaching effects of the global consumer society. Inside, Mr. Piano has created a contemplative sanctuary where art reasserts its primary place in the cultural hierarchy.

Photo: Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners

The feat is especially impressive given the obstacles Mr. Piano and the Whitney have overcome. Mr. Piano’s design is certainly distinct from Breuer’s, presenting a strange, even forbidding aura. The design is preliminary, and needs more work. But Mr. Piano has laid the groundwork for a serious work of architecture. The bold form expresses a level of experimental courage that he hasn’t shown in years. This is a building that could revive the Whitney, and inject welcome creative energy into the city’s cultural life.

Photo: Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners

@ Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/30/arts/20080501_RENZ_SLIDESHOW_4.html