OMA Completes New Museum Expansion on the Bowery

Summary

• OMA’s 61,930-square-foot expansion doubles the New Museum’s exhibition space, creating a horizontal campus alongside the existing SANAA building
• Aligned galleries, an Atrium Stair, and purpose-built labs for NEW INC enhance visitor flow and creative production

The New Museum has officially completed its 60,000-square-foot building expansion on the Bowery, a transformative project designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson. Founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, the New Museum remains Manhattan’s only institution dedicated exclusively to contemporary art and living artists. This seven-story addition serves as a “cultural laboratory,” providing much-needed space for the museum’s rapidly growing exhibition programs, educational initiatives, and its renowned cultural incubator, NEW INC. By doubling the institution’s exhibition footprint, the expansion reinforces the museum’s commitment to supporting experimental productions and ambitious new ideas.

The architectural approach respects the integrity of the adjoining 2007 SANAA-designed flagship while asserting a distinct, complementary identity. Clad in laminated glass with a metal mesh interlayer, the new structure establishes a unified, monolithic exterior during the day that echoes the original building’s facade. Shohei Shigematsu, Partner-in-Charge at OMA, notes: “The New Museum is an incubator for new cultural perspectives and production, and the expansion aims to embody that attitude of openness. Imagined as a highly connected yet distinct counterpart to the existing museum’s verticality and solidity, the new building will offer horizontally expansive galleries for curatorial variety, open vertical circulation, and a diversity of spaces for gathering, exchange, and creation. The building is further shaped to create an active public face – including an outdoor plaza at the ground, moments of transparency throughout the central atrium, and terraced openings at the top – that will openly engage the surrounding community and beyond.”

Internally, the expansion adds three floors of exhibition galleries that seamlessly connect to the existing building, with ceiling heights aligned to ensure a fluid horizontal flow. This “synergistic pair” allows for larger, singular exhibitions across the combined floorplates or independent, diverse curatorial projects. The project also dramatically improves vertical circulation through a new Atrium Stair and dedicated elevators, offering visitors dramatic views of the neighborhood and Prince Street. Beyond the galleries, the building features the first purpose-built home for NEW INC, dedicated artist studios, a full-service restaurant, and an expanded lobby and bookstore.

The upper levels of the expansion are designed for maximum public engagement and flexibility, housing a solar-generating photovoltaic roof and three new terraces with expansive views of lower Manhattan. These floors provide versatile platforms for workshops, performances, and residency programs that address urgent social and political issues. Reflecting on the collaborative effort required to reach this milestone, Jake Forster, Project Architect and Associate at OMA, states: “The new building aims to support, complement, and diversify the existing museum to establish a campus. We have enjoyed engineering a variety of spaces, structures and materials to create new opportunities and engagements. It has relied on the passion and expertise of a diverse group of designers, engineers, and makers to get to this milestone. I’m excited to see our collective effort come to life as it welcomes the public in.”

The New Museum
235 Bowery, New York,
NY 10002, United States