New-York Historical Society Museum & Library expands Central Park West location

The New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, the oldest museum in New York City, is expanding its building on Central Park West by 70,000-sf, which will be used for program space for itself and The American LGBTQ+ Museum.

The Museum is the first in New York dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture and make its permanent home at New-York Historical. Upon completion, The American LGBTQ+ Museum will occupy the entirety of the expansion’s fourth floor and encompass two galleries, access to the roof garden, and areas for offices and storage.

The Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed expansion will also feature classrooms, galleries, collections study areas, and a state-of-the-art compact storage facility for the institution’s renowned Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. The new storage facility for the library will replace the original storage stacks, dating from 1904 and 1937.

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The new classrooms will serve the Academy for American Democracy program, an educational initiative for New York’s sixth-grade students that is transforming the way history and civics are taught in middle school. The new galleries and collections study areas, meanwhile, will host the graduate students from New-York Historical’s Master of Arts in Museum Studies program.

The first phase of the project will begin in summer 2022 and focus on the below-grade library stacks. A second phase will build the galleries, classrooms, and other spaces once target funding is achieved.