Modern-Art Museum to Raze Building Acquired From Folk Art Museum

Two years after acquiring the building that formerly housed—and nearly sank—New York’s American Folk Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art says it plans to demolish the structure, reports The New York Times.

The midtown Manhattan building, designed by noted architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and opened in 2001, was to have ushered in new growth for the Folk Art Museum, which instead nearly collapsed under the $32-million debt load from the project. MoMA purchased the structure in May 2011, helping the Folk Art Museum retire its debt and settle into a smaller-scale but more stable existence.

The Folk Art site sits between the main Museum of Modern Art building and what will be an 82-story tower. MoMA plans to construct a new building that will be connected to lower-floor galleries in the high-rise—a project the former Folk Art building’s design did not fit.

“It’s not a comment on the quality of the building or Tod and Billie’s architecture,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of the modern art museum.