Landmarks Commission Approves Frick Collection Expansion

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The New York Cit Landmarks Preservation Commission voted near unanimously to approve a $160 million expansion project at the Upper East Side's Frick Collection.

The expansion project will re purpose more than 60,000 square feet of existing space as well as add space for a administrative spaces, a new auditorium, a cafe, a gift shop and an education center. The expansion will also add gallery space to the museum in an effort to accommodate its growing art collection.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission's vote came one day after a group called Stop Irresponsible Frick Development attempted to get a judge to postpone the vote and rallied on the steps of City Hall to voice displeasure with the planned expansion. The group claims that the Frick's expansion is an attempt to commercialize what was once a house museum meant to display a small private collection.

The group's main qualms with the expansion plan are that it will alter the Russell Page Garden and that it will replace the historic Music Room with "generic" gallery space. The Music Room is currently being considered by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for an interior landmarks designation, preservationists said.

"If this harmful plan is approved it will open the floodgate to the over-commercialization of yet another museum in New York," lawyer David Scharf said Monday during a rally on the City Hall steps. "And we're here to say that it cannot happen. We have to protect and preserve the house museum's historic elements and the original architecture."

A spokesperson for the Frick Collection said that the museum's expansion plans include the restoration of the Russell Page Garden and that neither the garden nor the music room are part of the original Frick mansion's architecture. The spokesperson also contested Stop Irresponsible Frick Development's assertion that the Fruck is a house museum, stating "it is a cultural institution with exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programming and has expanded three times previously, first in 1931-35, in its efforts to better serve the public."

The expansion project, led by Selldorf Architects, is expected to begin in 2020 and take two years to complete, museum officials said. The expansion will be the Frick Collection's first major renovation since 1935, when the historic building was converted from a private residence into a public museum and library. The mansion was originally constructed as a home for industrialist, financier and art collector Henry Clay Frick.

Rendering courtesy Selldorf Architects