LP-2685 and LP-2686
(Former) Whitney Museum of American Art (Individual and Interior) – 945 Madison Avenue
ITEM PROPOSED FOR PUBLIC HEARING
A Brutalist-style museum building designed by Marcel Breuer and Associates and built between 1964 and 1966 and the interior of the (Former) Whitney Museum, a Brutalist-style building designed by Marcel Breuer and Associates and built between 1964 and 1966, consisting of portions of the lower level facing Madison Avenue; the first-floor lobby, coat check, and entrance vestibule; and the main stairwell from the lower level through the fifth floor, which may include, but is not limited to the floor surfaces, wall surfaces, ceiling surfaces, lighting fixtures, and attached furnishings.
As the citywide advocate for New York’s architectural, historical, and cultural neighborhoods, The Historic Districts Council supports the designation of the (Former) Whitney Museum of American Art and Interior as both an Individual and Interior Landmark.
Marcel Breuer’s 1966 Whitney Museum is an icon of Brutalist architecture, and the first museum in Manhattan devoted entirely to American Art.
Breuer, who trained as a designer at the Bauhaus, designed both the museum and its interiors, which work in tandem as an artistic whole. This synthesis of inside and outside reflects the German concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art.
The museum’s mesmerizing system of lobby ceiling lights is echoed in its coffered gallery ceilings on the floors above. These two elements are connected via the museum’s staircase, which is widely celebrated as its own discrete work of art, and has been lauded as “one of the most stunning spaces in any 20th-century building.” As a whole, the Whitney cannot be recreated, and should be protected from unsympathetic alteration.
Breuer’s Whitney also stands out as worthy of designation because the building and its interiors allow visitors to be surrounded by a set of Modern design ideas informed by Bauhaus principles. That’s a rare experience in New York City, and should be protected.
We look forward to this designation, and note that the Former Whitney is one of many outstanding Modernist structures and interiors in New York City worthy of designation, such as the Modulightor building, which LPC recently recognized. We thank LPC for its recent work Modernism, and urge the commission to continue its evaluation and designation of Modern architecture.