MANHATTAN — The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum reached a milestone Wednesday when it completed its $54 million capital campaign to modernize and enlarge its home, the landmark Carnegie Mansion at Fifth Avenue and East 91st Street, museum officials announced.
The Cooper-Hewitt, which is a member of the Smithsonian Institution, closed its doors in July to begin a two-year renovation of its historic building. The museum will be adding a 6,000-square-foot gallery to the third floor, increasing the total exhibition space to 16,000 square feet from 10,000 square feet, among other changes.
"To be embarking on the transformation of the Carnegie Mansion with all the funding secured is a huge achievement,” Paul Herzan, chairman of the board, said in a statement.
The museum also completed the renovation of two townhouses on East 90th Street that house the National Design Library, the Master’s Program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design and administrative offices, officials said.
Beside raising $54 million for the renovation, the museum also raised $7 million in endowment funds to support exhibitions, collections, the website and other operating expenses. The museum received $8.8 million in city funding, a $250,000 state grant and more than $20 million from the Smithsonian.
"The museum is raising its capacity to inform a larger audience about how design impacts every moment of our daily lives,” Richard Kurin, Smithsonian under secretary for history, art and culture, said in a statement. "The physical renovation allows for increased space for exhibitions, greater exposure of the museum’s permanent collection and expanded on-site public programming."
During the closure through the fall of 2013, the museum will be holding shows off-site. "Design with the Other 90%: Cities," is currently at the United Nations through Jan. 9, 2012, and a major show called “Graphic Design: Now in Production,” will be on view at Governors Island next summer.
Though Andrew Carnegie found "ostentatious living" profoundly distasteful and considered New York millionaires to act irresponsibly, according to PBS, he also believed "that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts."
Carnegie gave the house to the Smithsonian in 1972, and the Cooper-Hewitt opened four years later.
