- The largest expansion in the Library’s history, adding 75,000ft2 to the campus and over 50% to the exhibition space.
- New performance hall, entrance, café and restaurant, shop, reading room and rare collections space.
New York’s Morgan Library was founded in 1906, and has served as a research library and museum. It is home to one of the world’s finest collections of artistic, musical and literary works.
The expansion project was set in a constrained site surrounded by three landmark buildings: the original 1906 Library designed by Charles McKim; the 1928 annex by Benjamin Wistar Morris; and the mid-nineteenth century Morgan house.
Renzo Piano’s design skillfully integrates these buildings with three steel and glass pavilions to create a unique public space in the midst of Manhattan.
The new entrance on Madison Avenue leads to the heart of the design. A stunning 52ft glass-roofed piazza seamlessly connects the old and the new to create a dynamic, flexible and memorable space.
Lighting design
Arup’s lighting designers worked closely with Renzo Piano to create a dynamic lighting scheme. The vast public spaces are bathed in natural light, and fragile works are exhibited in underground vaults under suffused electric lighting.
Throughout the museum, this balance of natural and artificial light creates a warm, inviting environment that responds sensitively to the varied scale of the spaces.
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