Breuer 3, Whitney 0

As was hinted at last week, it looks more and more likely that the Whitney will move their new expansion downtown after all.

According to an article in today's New York Times, Whitney Museum May Move Expansion to Downtown Site, the museum "has all but decided that moving its expansion to another site would make more sense." I'm sure some will blame preservationists for standing in the way of architectural "progress", but noone said they had to expand their museum within an historic district. Yes, I realize that they can't help where their museum is located but when planning their expansion, they knew full well that demolishing a contributing brownstone would cause problems. A Metropolis article on the Whitney's revamping noted back in 1998,

"Whitney officials assert that, in its current form, the building will meet their needs for at least 10 years. After that? Look forward to another neighborhood dogfight--or more quiet ingenuity--circa 2008."

It ended up only being 6 years (I wonder if the Whitney got expansion anxiety with the expansions at MoMA and the Morgan, and the plans for the New Contemporary Museum) but the predicted dogfight was certainly waiting. Many in the neighborhood rallied and railed against the plan and the Whitney had to struggle to get LPC approval. And I'd assume that Renzo Piano's services were not cheap, especially having to rework his design around that pesky brownstone.

So ultimately, the cost of the new expansion was not worth it for the amount of space that would be added. Would it still have been worth it even if the expansion was as large as Piano originally planned? The article also notes that the museum would have needed to be closed for about two years during construction. And the Whitney has backed off two earlier plans for expansion in the past.

It seems as if Marcel Breuer's building has won again. And the Whitney has given up on its Madison Avenue expansion ideas. In boxing, the fight is over after three knockdowns. Time to ring the bell.