MoMA FAQs
Architectural Chronology

The Museum of Modern Art is about to complete the largest building project in its history. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the Museum reopened in midtown Manhattan on November 20, 2004, to coincide with MoMA's seventy-fifth anniversary. The 630,000-square-foot Museum is nearly twice the size of the former facility, offering dramatically expanded and redesigned spaces for exhibitions, public programming, educational outreach, and scholarly research.

Upon its completion in November 2006, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building will mark the culmination of the Taniguchi project, providing significantly increased space for MoMA's wide-ranging educational and research activities.

The David and Peggy Rockefeller Building
A six-story gallery building—which includes many double-height floors—houses the main collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Architecturally distinctive galleries designed specifically for the type and scale of works displayed provide an ideal showcase for MoMA’s unparalleled collection of modern and contemporary art. Spacious galleries for contemporary art are located on the second floor, demonstrating the Museum’s commitment to the art of our time, with smaller, more intimately scaled galleries for the collection on the levels above. Expansive, skylit galleries for temporary exhibitions are located on the top floor. These can be subdivided to accommodate up to three concurrent exhibitions, each accessible from a central platform suspended above the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium.

Lobby
In the lobby Taniguchi takes inspiration from the idea of the street, and transfers it inside. This interior promenade offers expansive views of both The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the light-filled Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, which soars 110 feet above street level. The lobby also serves as the “information center” of the Museum, with ticket counters; information about membership, current exhibitions, and programs; and access to the Museum's theaters, restaurant, stores, and Sculpture Garden.

The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
Opposite The David and Peggy Rockefeller Building is MoMA’s new eight-story Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, which offers five times more space for educational and research activities. The expanded Library and Archives occupy the top floors of the building and include a light-filled reading room and outdoor terrace. The building also features an entrance for school groups, a 125-seat auditorium, an orientation center, workshop space for teacher training programs, study centers, and a large lobby with double-height views into the Sculpture Garden.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
Taniguchi reintroduces The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden as the heart of the Museum by preserving Philip Johnson's original 1953 design. The architect’s plan enlarges the garden and re-establishes the southern terrace, which is now an elegant outdoor patio for the Museum’s new restaurant. Views of the garden are now available from numerous vantage points throughout the Museum.

Pictured above, clockwise from top: view of the Museum from Fifty-fourth Street; view of sixth floor visitor walkway to temporary exhibition galleries in gallery building; view from third floor of The David and Peggy Rockefeller Building looking east; view of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden looking west towards The David and Peggy Rockefeller Building. Digital Images © 2003 Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates