Artist Talk Magazine - issue 11

by renowned restaurateur Danny
Meyer and his Union Square
Hospitality Group.
Mr. Piano’s design takes a strong
and strikingly asymmetrical form—
one that responds to the industrial
character of the neighboring loft
buildings and overhead railway
while asserting a contemporary,
sculptural presence. The upper
stories of the building overlook the
Hudson River on its west, and step
back gracefully from the elevated
High Line Park to its east.
ABOUT RENZO PIANO
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN GANCSOS ©2016
THE BUILDING
Designed by architect Renzo
Piano, the Whitney’s building in
the Meatpacking District includes
approximately 50,000 square
feet of indoor galleries and 13,000
square feet of outdoor exhibition
space and terraces facing the High
Line. An expansive gallery for
special exhibitions is approximately
18,000 square feet in area,
making it the largest columnfree
museum gallery in New York
City. Additional exhibition space
includes a lobby gallery (accessible
free of charge), two floors for the
permanent collection, and a special
exhibitions gallery on the top floor.
Mr. Piano remarked in 2011, “The
design for the new museum
emerges equally from a close study
of the Whitney’s needs and from
a response to this remarkable site.
We wanted to draw on its vitality
and at the same time enhance
its rich character. The first big
gesture, then, is the cantilevered
entrance, which transforms the
area outside the building into a
large, sheltered public space. At
this gathering place beneath the
High Line, visitors will see through
the building entrance and the
large windows on the west side to
the Hudson River beyond. Here,
all at once, you have the water,
the park, the powerful industrial
structures and the exciting mix
of people, brought together and
focused by this new building and
the experience of art.”
The dramatically cantilevered
entrance along Gansevoort Street
shelters an 8,500-square-foot
outdoor plaza or “largo,” a public
gathering space steps away from
the southern entrance to the High
Line. The building also includes an
education center offering stateof-the-art
classrooms; a multi-use
black box theater for film, video,
and performance with an adjacent
outdoor gallery; a 170-seat theater
with stunning views of the Hudson
River; and a Works on Paper Study
Center, Conservation Lab, and
Library Reading Room.
A retail shop on the ground-floor
level contributes to the busy street
life of the area. A ground-floor
restaurant, Untitled, and the topfloor
Studio Cafe are operated
Renzo Piano was born in Genoa,
Italy, in 1937, into a family of
builders. In his home city he
has strong roots, sentimental
and cultural, with its historic
center, the port, the sea, and
with his father’s trade. During
his time at university, the Milan
Polytechnic, he worked in the
studio of Franco Albini. He
graduated in 1964 and then
began to work with experimental
lightweight structures and basic
shelters. Between 1965 and 1970
he traveled extensively in America
and Britain. In 1971, he founded
the studio Piano & Rogers with
Richard Rogers, and together
they won the competition for the
Centre Pompidou in Paris, the city
where he now lives. From the early
70s until the 90s, he collaborated
with the engineer Peter Rice,
forming Atelier Piano & Rice,
between 1977 and 1981. Finally, in
1981, he established Renzo Piano
Building Workshop, with a hundred
people working in Paris, Genoa,
and New York.
DISCOVER MORE
https://whitney.org/
Whitney Museum of
American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 570-3600
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