By Gus Saltonstall
The New York Historical, the Upper West Side museum that is the oldest in the city, had its soft opening at the end of last week for its new 71,000 square-foot Tang Wing for American Democracy.
The $175 million expansion of the museum at 170 Central Park West, near the corner of West 76th Street, opened in anticipation of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States.
“The opening of the Tang Wing for American Democracy marks a defining milestone for New York’s first museum as we commemorate the nation’s semiquincentennial,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO, The New York Historical, in a news release.
The new museum wing includes an open-air sculpture court, a roof garden, classrooms, a conservation lab, and, beginning in 2028, will house the American L.G.B.T.Q.+ Museum. The new museum space was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, and the wing’s exterior was excavated from the same quarry in Deer Isle, Maine, as the stone used for its Central Park West building, completed in 1908 and last expanded in 1938.
Museum-goers will be able to enter the new wing from the three visitor floors of the current building. The Klingenstein Family Gallery on the first floor will extend up to 42 feet, allowing the display of monumental artworks. Windows on its north side will face the new sculpture garden, where, among other works, life-size bronze statues of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton will stand, pistols raised, 10 paces apart as they did in their duel in 1804 — the year the museum was founded.
The new wing is named for Hsu-Tang and her husband, Oscar L. Tang, in honor of their $20 million gift. The museum is raising $10 million to support exhibitions and programming for the new wing, with additional funds coming from $100 million in private philanthropy and $75 million in city, state, and federal support.
You can find out more about the new Tang Wing — HERE.
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One thing that it did not get was a noun.
The people in charge dropped “Society” from the name, because they thought it sounded elitist. Stupid move.
And now it just sounds muddled!
I’m missing the hyphen as well.
My sentiments exactly! I am a marketing and branding professional and the first and most important thing for your name to do is tell people what you are. The new name, which most likely came at great expense to the institution, is so vague as to not inform potential audiences of its mission. I am although very excited about this expansion and can’t wait to visit.
I wish the WSR would do some investigative journalism into what went on when coming up with this name change.
Can’t wait to check it out! My favorite museum.
You should check out the Morgan Library
But the Morgan Library isn’t about NY history! No comparison!
Very exciting. I can’t wait to take in the park view form the rooftop. What would this city be without billionaire money funding its cultural institutions?
PS: We all know whose name is nowhere to be found on any plaque or wing in New York….
Yes, but on way too many private buildings for now.
“Way too many” — “private”
And that’s where cognitive dissonance comes to roost.
Who else still calls it the New-York Historical Society?
me me me!!!!
Everybody
I do. I’m a member, but the lack of a complete title drives me insane.
It’s great to have the museum expand, if only they would support and respect the neighborhood more. The benches on CPW…gone. Construction noise and dirt and glaring alarms at any time of the day and night? Check! Blocking off the stairs to the museum during parades. Done! Plus zero communication or liaison with any of the neighbors…great museum but bad neighbors
No construction of any sort will ever take place in this city if everyone was “liaising” with neighbors – everyone and their grandma has (will have) 15 different opinions on what should and shouldn’t happen.
They have a property to take care of, and little money and staff and time to worry about cleaning people’s trash off steps and benches. Maybe if you checked in with them you would discover they offer free days, free lectures and programs, and other amenities you are not aware of, because you are too busy thinking they need to reach out to you instead of the other way around. Their job is to preserve and present history, not guess who you are and figure out where you are. You post without a real name. How can they find you?!
At this point they have overbuilt.
So, rich people (donors) are good again?
RIch people/donors are always good when they fund cultural, charitable, and educational causes to benefit everyone. It’s when they fund political causes that the controversy ensues.
They could have found a different neighborhood where LGBTQ+ themes are appropriate like Hell’s Kitchen with its proud gay community or the West Village with the Stonewall Inn. Begs the question: Why did they choose the UWS? =/
Not understanding your question. The location is and has been the Upper West Side, so where else would it be?
Why not? What’s your objection, since clearly you have one?
The Tangs rock. See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Tang
I have followed this expansion project since its earliest days and was encouraged by the original vision as the future home of the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Community leaders and LGBTQ+ cultural icons were invited to a groundbreaking celebratory event, and many of us understood the project to represent a commitment to preserving and presenting LGBTQ+ history within a major NY institution.
Over time, however, the public messaging changed noticeably. After the Tang family’s gift enabled the project to move forward to completion, the emphasis seemed to shift away from the LGBTQ+ concept and toward the broader concept of the Tang Wing for American Democracy.
Since the initial groundbreaking in 2023, the project has benefited from extraordinary accommodations, including special permission to undertake construction on an accelerated schedule with 6-day work weeks and extended hours. This has been challenging for their neighbors, who have often been kept in the dark about their schedule, culminating in a grueling, multi-week span this past February and March, where local residents endured over 20 days of rogue building alarms, often past 9pm.
Finally, while the choice to feature sculptures of Burr and Hamilton with raised pistols has a historic tie to the year the museum was founded, it feels tone deaf and ignorant of our country’s ongoing gun crisis.
Go check out the new exhibit in the Tang Wing on the 4th floor. “Queer Joy/Gay Power”. Make no mistake: NYH is still very committed to highlighting this community. https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/queer-joy-gay-power
While concerns about gun violence in contemporary America are both understandable and important, it is difficult to see how accurately depicting the Burr–Hamilton duel can reasonably be characterized as “tone deaf.” The duel is one of the most famous events in early American history, involving two of the nation’s most significant Founding Era figures. Its historical significance is not diminished by modern concerns about firearms, nor should present-day social issues require the reinterpretation or sanitization of historical events.
Museums exist to present history as it occurred, not as we might wish it had occurred. The fact that Burr and Hamilton confronted one another with pistols is central to the story itself. Depicting that reality is not an endorsement of violence any more than portraying a battlefield is an endorsement of war. Historical exhibits should provide context and understanding, allowing visitors to engage with the past honestly, even when aspects of that past may be uncomfortable when viewed through a modern lens.
I appreciate your comments, which you expressed beautifully. Thank you.
The top photo, “courtesy of The New York Historical”, is a lie. They only planted ONE new tree along the long expance of sidewalk in front of the new wing, NOT the two shown in the picture. They skimped on nothing else, apparently!