The Whitney Museum of American Art signed an $18 million contract to add a satellite museum at the entrance to the High Line Park in the Meatpacking district.
The deal with the New York City Economic Development Corporation is half the market price of the property, reports the New York Times. The city hopes the museum will serve as a cultural magnet drawing visitors to a burgeoning cultural district.
The Whitney has up to four years to close on the property at Washington and Gansevoort Streets, during which time it will make payments of $50,000 a month, according to the Times. The full price of the land will be due at closing.
The museum will have five years to begin construction on the Renzo Piano-designed annex, which will be twice the size of the original Whitney located at Madison and E. 75th Street. The building will add 50,000 square feet of gallery space and 15,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space.
The current Whitney museum space does not have enough space to sustain a growing collection, said museum director Adam D. Weinberg in an interview with the Times.
“This is the only way we can continue to justify building a collection. We simply don’t have enough space to show our holdings. And since at least 60 percent of the art we acquire comes through gifts, it becomes more difficult to ask people to donate works if we cannot show them," Weinberg told the paper.
