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Whitney Downtown Museum

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Location: Whitney, USA

Building Area: 3,623 m2

Usable Area: 18,116 m2

Architects: Axis Mundi

Design Team: John Beckmann, Andy Vann, Denise Pereira,

Marielle Vargas

Renderings: Viviane Liao, Andy Vann

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Axis Mundi

Breuer

Breuer

Whitney Downtown Museum has been re-imagined by the New York architects Axis Mundi with a self-initiated proposal that is raw and

provocative, and as bold in spirit as the original Breuer building on Madison Avenue. With an intense sculptural presence, the Axis Mundi

design represents an historical extension of the Whitneys commitment to innovative architecture, much as its polygonal windows and raw

surfaces pay homage to the original Breuer fenestration and its formal brutalism.

Exploded Axonometric Axonometric Section

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The site is located at the beginning of the High Line, at the intersection ofWashington and Gansevoort Streets. Axis Mundi sought to ground the new

building in a web of historical axes which form and organize the program. The

plan is based on a series of sight lines extending to 10th Avenue, the Empire

State Building, the Whitney on Madison, and the location of the original Whitney

on West 10th Street.

A desire for column-free galleries led the architects to create a perimeter

superstructure to contain the staircases, escalators, elevators, and mechanical

rooms. This structural lattice allows the galleries to oat freely, suspended

like bridges, unimpeded by a typical grid structure. The lattice allows light to

ood the building in unexpected and dramatic ways, heightening the visitors

perception of the artwork and the city.Maintaining vitality at street level and reducing the distance between the street

and the art itself was an important consideration for the designers at Axis Mundi.

Instead of designing a large vacant lobby, an informal intermingling of public

and private space occurs on the street level plinth, creating a complex folding of

the urban fabric. The plinth is populated by large-scale sculptures, an outdoor

cafe bridge, an info kiosk, and a per formance area. A continuous path, weaving

in and out of the lattice structure, leads the visitor from the entrance ramp at

the corner of Washington and Gansevoort up to the panoramic viewing deck,

overlooking the Hudson River and the High Line.

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