By Carol Tannenhauser
With the unanimous approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), and not a zoning issue nor a disgruntled neighbor in sight, the plans for a four-story expansion of the New-York Historical Society, on Central Park West between West 76th and West 77th Streets, are moving forward.
The expansion will add “more than 70,000 square feet of program space for the New-York Historical Society and for The American LGBTQ+ Museum, New York’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture, which will make its permanent home at New-York Historical,” Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the institution announced on Wednesday. The LGBTQ+ Museum will occupy the entirety of the expansion’s fourth floor and encompass two galleries, access to the roof garden, and areas for offices and storage.
“With great foresight, our Trustees acted in 1937 to purchase the lot adjacent to New-York Historical’s building, knowing that our growing collections and evolving programs for scholars, students, educators, and the public would someday need room to expand,” Dr. Mirrer said. “Now that day has arrived—and how gratifying it is to realize the dream of telling the American story in all its complexity in state-of-the-art educational spaces and a brand-new gallery dedicated to the struggle for civil rights of the American LGBTQ+ community.”
The expansion, which was designed by the renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects, will be accomplished in phases, the first starting in the summer of 2022, with the construction of a below-grade, state-of-the-art storage space for the Klingenstein Library, currently housed mostly offsite. This will allow the public access to the library, which contains items found nowhere else in the world, including rare copies of this nation’s foundational documents.
“A second phase will construct galleries, classrooms, and other spaces once target funding is achieved,” according to a press release. “The addition of onsite classrooms will enable a dramatic expansion of New-York Historical’s service to tens of thousands of New York City public school students. These classrooms will serve the Academy for American Democracy program, an educational initiative for New York’s sixth-grade students that is transforming the way history and civics are taught in middle school.”
Other planned spaces include a ground-floor sculpture garden and a rooftop garden and conservatory.
If you’re interested in learning more about the American LGBTQ+ Museum, the link is here.
I feel sorry for whoever lives in that brown stone on West 76 street. They are in for construction hell. The empty lot that will have the addition used to have a building on it with a lot of affordable housing. It burned down so many lost their homes. All that affordable housing is lost forever now. Another museum edition in our neighborhood. Wonder how The Universalist Church across the street will be affected.
Re: “All that affordable housing is lost forever now.”
How MANY actual units lost? Five? Ten? “All that” is NOT a real number!
Re: “Another museum edition in our neighborhood.”
You did mean “addition”, yes? Besides, what’s wrong with having museums in a neighborhood? They’re good neighbors: no loud music, a relatively well-behaved clientele, and closed after 6:00 p.m., etc.
The shockingly modern “Met Breuer” (once The Whitney and now part of The Frick Museum) has been on the oh-so-classy Upper East Side since 1964 with no ill effects.
What does this LGBTQ Museum have to do with the New York Historical Society? Why would the LGBTQ Museum be housed in the New York Historical Society?
Responding to steevie:
Haven’t you heard of Stonewall?
It’s a significant part of NYC history and had a life-changing effect on literally millions of people worldwide! And the AIDS crisis that began in the early 1980’s forced us to recognize how New York City’s vital artistic and creative worlds – including NYC’s Dance,Theater and Fashion communities – were so tragically decimated by this horrible illness. And that the LGBT Movement and Community Is indeed so brilliantly woven into the historical fabric of our great City.
THANK YOU NYHS!
You don’t see how the struggle for LGBT+ rights which has remarkable historical significance for NYC is relevant to the NYC Historical Society?
The stench of homophobia wafts into the comments section.
@Stinky McBigot – An obvious troll is obvious.
Please, enlighten me. What “stench of homophobia” did I miss in the first 3 comments?
Steevie’s initial comment is either homophobic or simply ignorant of history. If the latter, then enlightenment is warranted. If the former, then no amount of enlightenment will have an effect.
This is not an exhibit in the museum, which could be interesting, It is a whole museum being added on. This makes no sense.
It doesn’t. It’s quite likely that this is all being paid for by the LGBTQ+ museum. The empty lot has gone through a number of proposals, often negotiated with no cost to the museum in return for usable space.
Build it and the NIMBYs will come.
This article’s comments section is a very good illustration of how anonymity and an internet connection can warp people’s minds.
Imagine being at a small dinner party and someone mentions that the historical society is expanding and will have space for the city’s first LGBTQ museum. And then someone else immediately complains that the construction will be noisy and also that there used to be affordable housing on the empty lot but a fire happened and now it’s gone.
And then someone else seriously asks how LGBTQ history relates at all to the history of NYC (birthplace of the gay rights movement at Stonewall, artistic epicenter of America in large part because of works and performances by and about members of the LGBTQ community, to name just two obvious examples).
It would be weird! Like this comments section!
Maybe I’m being too generous, but I didn’t take “Steevie” to be questioning the relevance of queer history to an NYC history museum.
If he was, that’s of course pretty dumb. But I read his questions as directed more at whether the new museum is organizationally affiliated with the NY Historical Society and, if not, how this shared-building arrangement came to be.
(After all, it’s not like there’s a second, separate science museum tucked away in the AMNH across the street.)
“Blessed are the peacemakers”—I guess;)
Yes, Brandon.
The “steevie” comment was clearly questioning the relevance of presenting LGBT history under the auspices of New York’s oldest museum and prestigious authority on NYC: The New-York Historical Society.
And as a NYHS Member, in my view, the “steevie” comment was, indeed, quite dumb.
According to what I’ve read on both the LGBTQ+ and nyhistory.org websites, the NY historical society will provide a “home” for the LGBTQ+ museum. It is spoken of as a “partnership,” but depends upon funding to make this happen. The first project is the return and re-housing of the Library’s vast collection from off-site storage, and that is to begin next year.
It’s significant that located near the NYHS site for this new museum is an important monument in LGBT New York history:
Just 4 blocks away, on the Lake in Central Park, the first major art commission in New York City history was awarded to a Woman…who was Gay.
The renowned “Angel of the Waters” statue
at Bethesda Fountain was designed by Emma Stebbins (while living in Rome with her beloved lover, acclaimed actress Charlotte Cushman) and was unveiled in 1873.
Portrayed in Tony Kushner’s masterpiece “Angels In America” it was Emma Stebbins’ sculptural symbol of love and healing that has resonated in the heart of NYC
for nearly 150 years!
Overall it sounds like a good idea. Is it cynical or smart that it very much benefits the NY Historical Society, developers, and investors? Why it is a separate entity, not sure; possibly the admins and investors view it as a larger draw. It does sound simultaneously homophobic and not.
Point of history: “The American LGBTQ+ Museum, New York’s first museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture….” — its forerunner is female: The Lesbian Herstory Archives, in Brooklyn.
This is super-good news!
Am I the only person to remember when NYHS tried to build a tall “luxury” residential building on that lot? Every neighbor freaked out. This is a real improvement to the neighborhood’s cultural landscape.