NEW YORK.- The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission today approved, by a unanimous vote, a design for the expansion and renovation of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Whitney is expanding in order to better serve the public, present more artworks from its outstanding permanent collection, and further strengthen its distinctive role as the leading museum of 20th– and 21st– century American art.

Commenting on the Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval of the Whitney's expansion proposal, Landmarks Chairman Robert B. Tierney said, "Faced with a complex site that includes nineteenth century rowhouses and an icon of Brutalist architecture, the Landmarks Commission found that Renzo Piano's design successfully and appropriately knits together the past, present and future to create a new layer of history on this site."

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, the new design creates additional galleries, a public piazza, new education facilities, an auditorium, an expanded library, and art conservation laboratories, a study center, offices, a fully-enclosed loading dock, and visitor amenities. The design creates a new structure—set back behind the existing Marcel Breuer-designed building and adjacent rowhouses—which brings all of the Whitney’s parts together into a unified whole, providing historic continuity with the neighborhood while enhancing the Whitney’s cultural and civic contributions to the public.

“This is a great day for the Whitney, the neighborhood, New York, and our visitors from across the country and abroad,” says Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney “We selected architect Renzo Piano because of his ability to design extraordinarily beautiful buildings and his unequaled sensitivity to the layered character of an urban neighborhood. He has taken a seemingly impossible challenge and created a design that offers a spectacular work of contemporary architecture for the City of New York and weaves new and old into a beautiful and elegant whole. I want to say how grateful we are for the support that we have received from our neighbors, community leaders, preservation organizations, and the City, all of which have enabled us to move forward with making this project a reality.”

The project includes the restoration of the Breuer-designed building, including exhibition galleries, the historic sculpture gallery, sculpture court and lobby. The expansion program also includes keeping all of the historically significant rowhouses on Madison Avenue and on 74th Street.

"This is a victory for the city of New York because the design both preserves the existing historic fabric and is a great work of contemporary architecture," said Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman of the Whitney Board of Trustees.

Over the past ten years, attendance at the Whitney has doubled, visits by school children have increased fivefold, and the museum’s permanent collection has grown by more than 65%. The collection now includes more than 15,000 works of art, including masterworks of pre- and postwar American art, most of which cannot be displayed due to space limitations. Piano’s design creates the facilities to accommodate increased public participation in the museum’s programs and provides for future growth, all within the footprint of the Whitney’s current complex.

“Today’s approval of the new design for the Whitney is tremendously exciting,” said Robert J. Hurst, President of the Whitney’s Board of Trustees. “Now we will have the space to show more of our remarkable collection, educate our growing audience, and meet the needs of the future.”

The Whitney met with neighbors, community leaders, state and city agencies, artists and other leaders in the arts community, and elected officials over the past few months to seek input on its plans. As part of this process, the Whitney and Renzo Piano worked together closely to create a plan that preserves the architectural integrity of the landmark Breuer building and is sensitive to the neighborhood.