sale of folk Art museum New York

New York City’s 
American Folk Art
Museum, designed
 by Tod Williams and
Billie Tsien Architects 
and completed in 2001, 
has been sold to its next
-door neighbor, the

 Museum of  Modern Art.
Because MoMA is looking to expand, speculation is rife 
that the folk art museum, located on West Fifty-Third Street,
 will be demolished. A MoMA spokesperson couldn’t 
disclose terms of the deal, which was finalized on May 10. 
The folk art museum reportedly approached MoMA about 
the sale in order  to help erase $32 million in debt, according
 to a statement from MoMA.
The 30,000-square-foot building — critically praised for 
its manipulation of space and light within a tall, slender 
volume — sits between MoMA and an empty lot where 
Hines, a global developer, plans  to build a condo 
tower by Jean Nouvel that also will contain MoMA 
galleries. 
Williams and others fear that the folk art museum could 
be razed to sweeten the development opportunity. 
But MoMA claims that the eight-level building, clad 
with distinctive metal panels, will be saved and used 
as exhibition space.
Since Williams and Tsien launched their Manhattan-
based practice  in 1974, only one of their projects 
has been bulldozed — a small  shop on the Upper 
East Side. 
To witness the demolition of anything you created is 
difficult,  Williams says: “When you make a building,
 you put your heart and soul into it and send it out into
the world.” He also hopes  the museum is not converted 
to offices because it was specifically designed to 
house art.
It’s unknown when the folk art museum, which has 
about 5,000 pieces in its collection, will vacate its 
current home. 
Its exhibition  space will now be limited to an existing 
5,000-square-foot gallery  near Lincoln Center. 
“We don’t know what will happen yet,” 
says Susan Flamm, a museum spokesperson. 
“The point is, we have to move.” C.J. Hughes