The exterior of 945 Madison, and portions of the interior, are subject for possible landmark designation. Image Credit: LPC.
On March 11, 2025, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing for the proposed designation of the former Whitney Museum of American Art and parts of the museum’s interior including the lobby, vestibule and staircase. The building, located at 945 Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, was the home of the Whitney Museum of American Art from its opening in 1966 until 2014.
The museum was originally founded in 1929 as the Whitney Studio by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a sculptor, who used the studio to feature contemporary American artists. The Whitney Studio was located through a series of buildings in Greenwich Village, and at some point shared space with the Museum of Modern Art. The museum’s trustees acquired the Upper East Side property, with Marcel Breuer and Associates selected to design the museum. Breuer trained as a carpenter in Weimar, Germany in between the World Wars. He eventually immigrated to the United States in 1937 to follow his mentor Walter Gropius to Harvard University. Some of Breuer’s most influential work includes the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and Begrisch Hall on the modern day Bronx Community College campus.
The museum building opened in 1966 as the first museum devoted exclusively to American art, and was the first new museum to open in Manhattan since the Guggenheim in 1959. The Brutalist-style building features an inverted ziggurat structure with granite and raw concrete. The site was a small lot – only 100 feet by 125 feet – so the building’s inverted pyramid structure creatively uses vertical space. The interior features open floor plans and flowing interconnected public spaces with distinctive lighting, with bush-hammered built-in furnishings and natural wood details. The lower level features a double-height space divided by an exposed concrete bridge above. The Madison Avenue facing-portion of the lower level is mostly glass and opened to a sculpture garden.
By the 80’s, the museum’s collection began to outgrow the limited space of the building and the museum began to rotate exhibitions. The museum relocated to 99 Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District in 2014. After the move, the building temporarily housed collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Museum, which both underwent renovations. In 2024, the building was acquired by auction house Sotheby’s. The building continues to function as gallery spaces and will remain free and open to the public.
Steven Ritson, who represents the owners of 945 Madison Avenue, testified first, and discussed managing the careful balance between the appreciation and preservation of the building’s historical and architectural significance and the desire to make “compatible modifications” to keep the building as a functioning, vibrant space for the public.
Speakers from Friends of the Upper East Side, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Historic Districts Council, and DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State, a chapter of an organization dedicated to preserving Modern Movement architecture, all spoke in support of the designation.
Theodore Grunwald of the Alliance to Save the Mill Lobby, an advocacy group that previously sued the Commission over an LPC-approved demolition, testified that he believed the current proposed designation did not include some of the upper galleries or rooms with distinct architectural features like a concrete suspended ceiling with an egg-crate coffering that would be at risk for removal or demolition if not included in the designation.
John Graham of the Victorian Society New York shared a similar concern, that the proposed interior designation did not go far enough. He believed a master plan could be developed with the Commission that would allow for the protection of elements in the upper floors while allowing for future adjustments as long as those elements were added to the proposed interior designation.
After the testimony, Commissioner Michael Goldblum asked whether they should consider reevaluating the decision to exclude the upper gallery spaces in the proposed interior designation, and cited a recent interior renovation for a gallery on Broadway that was approved by the Commission with specific rules and regulations for a master plan that was specific for that space.
Landmark Chair Sarah Carroll stated that the Commission is “highly selective when considering interior designations and I think it’s always a balance of functionality, flexibility and preserving the most significant space” which for cultural institutions has included main entryways, lobbies, and the circulation spaces.
The Commission will vote at a future date.
By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the Editor of CityLand and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)